David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Self-Cutting Practiced at Ivy League Schools
June 5, 2006
Nearly one in five students who completed a mental-health survey at two Ivy League colleges said they deliberately injured themselves as a way to relieve stress or cry out for emotional help, the Associated Press reported.
Seventeen percent of 2,875 respondents at Cornell University and Princeton University said they purposely hurt themselves, the wire service reported. Of those, 70 percent said they had engaged in the practice more than once. Results of the survey are published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Counselors cited by the AP said self-injury -- including self-cutting and self-burning -- is practiced at colleges, high schools, and middle schools across the United States. Separate research has found more than 400 Web sites devoted to the practice, the wire service said.
Repeat self-abusers are more likely to be female, to have an eating disorder, and to be suicidal, according to the study's main author, Cornell psychologist Janis Whitlock. She said she is among researchers who believe that people who self-abuse are fueled by the release of "feel-good" endorphin hormones that are produced in response to pain. But this "high" is frequently followed by deep shame and injuries that often require medical treatment.
School psychologists noted there is often one instigator who prompts other sympathetic, yet less troubled friends to self-abuse in tandem, the wire service said.
June 5, 2006
Nearly one in five students who completed a mental-health survey at two Ivy League colleges said they deliberately injured themselves as a way to relieve stress or cry out for emotional help, the Associated Press reported.
Seventeen percent of 2,875 respondents at Cornell University and Princeton University said they purposely hurt themselves, the wire service reported. Of those, 70 percent said they had engaged in the practice more than once. Results of the survey are published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Counselors cited by the AP said self-injury -- including self-cutting and self-burning -- is practiced at colleges, high schools, and middle schools across the United States. Separate research has found more than 400 Web sites devoted to the practice, the wire service said.
Repeat self-abusers are more likely to be female, to have an eating disorder, and to be suicidal, according to the study's main author, Cornell psychologist Janis Whitlock. She said she is among researchers who believe that people who self-abuse are fueled by the release of "feel-good" endorphin hormones that are produced in response to pain. But this "high" is frequently followed by deep shame and injuries that often require medical treatment.
School psychologists noted there is often one instigator who prompts other sympathetic, yet less troubled friends to self-abuse in tandem, the wire service said.
which is by no means an Ivy League school but I was accepted to Columbia and Franklin and Marshall(which is almost Ivy League) and both of those schools have help on campus for individuals struggling with personal issues...I actually only applied to schools that had counseling on campus b/c that is going to be critical for me....anyway among many other reasons I choose Duquesne is b/c I can meet with a licensed psychologist on campus every week and it is included in my tuition...also Duquesne University sees mental illnesses like being Bi-polar (like me) as a disease and will help you work w/ your professors...also there is a psychiatrist that visits campus once a week...so I feel pretty good about all that info 
