That's so awkward. I never used to see references to self injury, but now they are everywhere. Maybe I'm more tuned in to it, but I think it's also a matter of it now being something that people have heard of, so they talk about it more. And the attitudes vary a lot. I was reading a Newsweek article today that mentioned a tsunami survivor who had lost children and grandchildren, and after describing her losses, the article said that she had "gashes across her face that could only have been self-inflicted." That was all that was said, and no judgements were made, and it seems understandable in those circumstances.

I also hear people talk about "cutters" at work all the time, since I work in residential treatment for teenage girls, and quite a few of the girls are self injurers. Often I wish that I could jump in when other staff are talking about cutting, and how they don't understand it, and tell them that I do it too. Maybe I could offer some explanation. But I know it wouldn't be a good career move to do that. Once in a staff meeting, the director was describing a new resident's problem behaviors, and said "she is a severe cutter." The tone in her voice sounded hateful to me, but maybe I was imagining it. She went on to say that this girl is a visual cutter, and only cuts her forearms and lower legs. She does patterns and designs, and the girl was telling staff just the other night that she did it because she thought it looked cool (like tattoos), and she has changed her mind about that and can't believe she ever thought that way. I don't think that's all there is to it for her, but I hope she has decided to stop and can stick to her decision.

Anyway, I'm not sure this helps, but I think we're going to keep running into people noticing SI and commenting about it, whether or not they know or suspect us of being involved with it. Some will have attitudes that are hard to take, and others will be more accepting. I'm not sure what to do about it except just to realize that it's probably going to happen, and try to be prepared.