Disturbing Disorder on the Rise: Self-Embedding

[J_UNTITLED]

From io9.com...

"Radiologists, the people who examine the inside of your body using X-rays and other imaging tech, were among the first to discover a disturbing new syndrome called "self-embedding." No, it's not some cool piercing thing - here you can see the long, thin pieces of metal that a teenage girl has inserted in her arm. This is an actual disorder where people, especially teens, embed objects in their bodies.

Sometimes the objects are metal pins or paper clips, which makes them easy to pick up on X-rays, say a group of researchers from Chicago who studied the phenomenon in 10 teen girls. The problem is that a lot of people suffering from self-embedding cut themselves and then put objects like wood, stone, or crayons in the wounds. It's estimated that as many as a quarter of all teens engage in some form of self-injury at least once.

Apparently, if you think a patient might be self-embedding, the best thing you can do is examine them using ultrasound. Here you can see staples that a teen has lodged inside her hand. According to the Radiological Society of North America:

Using ultrasound and/or fluoroscopic guidance, interventional pediatric radiologists removed 52 embedded foreign objects from nine of the patients. The embedded objects included metal needles, metal staples, metal paperclips, glass, wood, plastic, graphite (pencil lead), crayon and stone. The objects were embedded during injuries to the arms, ankles, feet, hands and neck. One patient had self-embedded 11 objects, including an unfolded metal paperclip more than six inches in length.

Ultrasound guidance allowed the researchers to detect the presence and location of wood, crayons and plastic objects, not detectable on x-ray examinations. Removal was performed through small incisions in the skin that left little or no scarring and was successful in all cases, without fragmentation or complications.

The radiologists, who are presenting their research today at a meeting of the Radiological Society, say that dealing with self-embedding has helped them come up with techniques that aid in removing any kind of small object in the body without fragmenting the object - a very dangerous problem - and without leaving scars."

[KamiAmaya]

Wow, that's one form of SI I've never heard of. Interesting read.

[plowmanjoe]

that's pretty messed up. i typically dislike pain.

[jamclaur]

I've never done that and don't understand it at all... but some one should get their kid lots of help is their shoving crayons under their skin... Those aren't tiny.

[KamiAmaya]

Self injury usually isn't about enjoying the pain though.

I'm trying to figure out why on earth they would use crayons though. Makes it sound like the kids doing this are younger than a teenager.

[Marquoz]

Wow, that's just utterly bizarre. It baffles the mind to think what those poor kids are going through if that is their way of an escape.

[camper]

People who do this used to just get tattoos or extra piercings to be 'different', but even hanging ones self from hooks has developed a sort of following, so it's no surprise that other forms of mutilation is becoming 'popular' with kids who want to say "i'm f'ed up" without actually saying it.

Afterall, once punk became someowhat fashionable we ended up with goths & emo, and grunge died because frat boys dressed that way to impress the frat girls who thought grunge was cool.

camper

[KamiAmaya]

If kids are doing this just because it's popular they're f'in idiots! Sorry, not angry at you, just at stupid people!
People who seriously self injure don't do it because it's popular or to get attention, and if it's going to become a fad... Well no one will know the difference between the idiots who do it for fun and people with serious problems

[Blue-Man]

Wow talk about emo. Crayons? Thats a new one to me. Personaly i dont feel the need to mutilate myself. Maybe cause im not a teenage girl though.

[KamiAmaya]

It's not only teenage girls who injure, but some think there are 3 or 4 times as many females that self injure than males. I don't really agree with that estimate because guys can do things like fighting/wrestling and the physical injuries provide the same relief as a female cutting herself. The fighting is just considered boys being boys, not SI.

[Rustmonkey]

"It's estimated that as many as a quarter of all teens engage in some form of self-injury at least once.
"


I'd like to see where they got that data... 25% is a HUGE number to be throwing around...

...other than that, sounds like a sad situation... people really need to watch after their kids and help them at the first signs of trouble... I know, its not all parents, but parents really do a play a HUGE role in children's lives... its the figuring out how to get them to listen that's the hard part...

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by Rustmonkey

"It's estimated that as many as a quarter of all teens engage in some form of self-injury at least once.
"


I'd like to see where they got that data... 25% is a HUGE number to be throwing around...

...other than that, sounds like a sad situation... people really need to watch after their kids and help them at the first signs of trouble... I know, its not all parents, but parents really do a play a HUGE role in children's lives... its the figuring out how to get them to listen that's the hard part...

true, true but even with the best parents, kids can and will hide things. issues can come from anywhere. this seems like it was a matter of time for self cutting evovled to this. everyones response seems identical when cutting was first uncovered. wonder what kids will think of next 15 yrs from now. parents are gonna need 24hr. shaperones.