Max, I'm sorry. I forgot to say that it really sucks that people are so insensitive and that girl did what she did. ***hugs*** if you want them

And yeah, I do think that peer influence increases it. There are reasons why people turn to si as a coping mechanism - we have had some hurtful experiences, and emotions were invalidated, and we didn't know how to deal with it. Having that kind of background is pretty common though, and people find some way to cope, whether this way or some other way, some healthy and some not. In choosing a coping method, if we hear about something that works for someone else, and we have a similar need for a way to cope, we're more likely to try it. Even when we talk about cutting and identify it and say don't do this, it's not a good coping method, someone who doesn't have good coping methods and needs some way to deal with things might not care that it isn't a good coping method, and they just might try it anyway. Not everyone (or even most people) who cut learned it from someone else, but it certainly can be learned that way, and I think that with the increased awareness of cutting, there are also more people trying it. Most of them probably would have used other coping methods if they hadn't gotten into cutting - some worse, some equivalent, and maybe some better. I think that just teaching about cutting does more harm than good. If they are going to teach about it, they need to teach healthy coping methods. Same for teaching about mental illness in general - how about teaching about mental wellness? It isn't particularly useful just to identify mental illness. What can you do about it - prevention, getting help, helping others to get help - will make a much better positive impact.

<font color="purple"> and now Rapunzel steps down from her soap box </font>