Healthy Balance

Cutting, Not Coping: How A Mom Helped Her Daughter Address the Urge to Self-Harm

teen girl with her head lowered, hands touching face

On a sunny day of an otherwise rainy beach week, Holly saw her daughter’s cry for help. Wearing a bathing suit, the 12-year-old could no longer hide the signs of cutting — fresh pink scratches and a web of thin white scars along her torso and arms.

“My daughter’s decision to harm herself — this incredible, beautiful being I’d spent over a decade trying to protect — was far from acceptable to me as a mom. It was heartbreaking. I needed to understand why,” Holly shares in the summer issue of Vim & Vigor, our family health magazine.

Healthcare Just for Teens

Our Teen and Young Adult Health Center providers help with the unique challenges that teens face.

Read this mom’s first-hand account of what she learned about cutting and other forms of self-harm. These aren’t new behaviors among adolescents. But through social media, teens can see their peers cutting and self-harming, and it can feel normal and acceptable. Holly shares what parents should — and should not — do when facing this situation.

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Inside the Summer magazine, you’ll also:

Read the full Summer 2021 Vim & Vigor.

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