The Addiction of the Nineties: a Trip through the Dark Realm of Body Modification
The Addiction of the Nineties: a Trip through the Dark Realm of Body Modification
A fifteen year old girl named Lindsay walks into a bathroom and stares at herself in the mirror. She notices the razor blade and looks at herself again, seeing nothing more than a body without a soul. Her parents divorced and seeing herself as completely unattractive, she starts to cut herself. At first it hurts but she continues to cut until she bleeds and realizes that there is life within her. She has never felt so alive (Strong 36- 37). Lindsay was displeased not only within the life she lived, but within herself as well. To prove to herself that she was indeed alive, she chooses to cut herself. In the book A Bright Red Scream, by Marilee Strong, it explains that, "researchers have begun to uncover the complex ways in which cutting provides both psychological and physiological relief from states of overwhelming tension and arousal" (43). It continues by explaining that, "cutting redefines the bodies' boundaries, differentiating self from others. Blood flowing from wounds proves there is life inside the body instead of nothingness" (47). Lindsay doesn't know who she is in her mind, cutting herself helps her with that quest for self awareness and confidence.
There are many terms for it; self-mutilation, self-injury, and self-abuse are some. For the purpose of this essay it will be referred to as body modification. Since the beginningsof time, people have engaged in body modification for many purposes. Body modification has been used to demonstrate feats of strength, to adorn oneself, or simply as a rite of passage. However, there are people who engage in it to escape feelings of anxiety, feelings of loneliness and a sense of helplessness. In his book Bodies Under Siege, Armando R. Favazza, M.D., expounds on the motivation behind this kind of Body modification ,"it provides a temporary relief from a host of painful symptoms such as anxiety, depersonalization, and desperation...self-mutilation is a morbid form of self help" (xix). Body modification is also seen as an addiction. Seventeen year old Stephen, a self-mutilator, claims that when one engages in acts of body modification they are rewarded with an endorphin rush (Strong 150). There is no doubt that throughout time body modification has held great spiritual, political, and religious significance, but in current times it is sad but true: body modification has branched off into a dark realm, attracting as its victims people with feelings of apprehension, confusion, and hopelessness.
A fifteen year old girl named Lindsay walks into a bathroom and stares at herself in the mirror. She notices the razor blade and looks at herself again, seeing nothing more than a body without a soul. Her parents divorced and seeing herself as completely unattractive, she starts to cut herself. At first it hurts but she continues to cut until she bleeds and realizes that there is life within her. She has never felt so alive (Strong 36- 37). Lindsay was displeased not only within the life she lived, but within herself as well. To prove to herself that she was indeed alive, she chooses to cut herself. In the book A Bright Red Scream, by Marilee Strong, it explains that, "researchers have begun to uncover the complex ways in which cutting provides both psychological and physiological relief from states of overwhelming tension and arousal" (43). It continues by explaining that, "cutting redefines the bodies' boundaries, differentiating self from others. Blood flowing from wounds proves there is life inside the body instead of nothingness" (47). Lindsay doesn't know who she is in her mind, cutting herself helps her with that quest for self awareness and confidence.
There are many terms for it; self-mutilation, self-injury, and self-abuse are some. For the purpose of this essay it will be referred to as body modification. Since the beginningsof time, people have engaged in body modification for many purposes. Body modification has been used to demonstrate feats of strength, to adorn oneself, or simply as a rite of passage. However, there are people who engage in it to escape feelings of anxiety, feelings of loneliness and a sense of helplessness. In his book Bodies Under Siege, Armando R. Favazza, M.D., expounds on the motivation behind this kind of Body modification ,"it provides a temporary relief from a host of painful symptoms such as anxiety, depersonalization, and desperation...self-mutilation is a morbid form of self help" (xix). Body modification is also seen as an addiction. Seventeen year old Stephen, a self-mutilator, claims that when one engages in acts of body modification they are rewarded with an endorphin rush (Strong 150). There is no doubt that throughout time body modification has held great spiritual, political, and religious significance, but in current times it is sad but true: body modification has branched off into a dark realm, attracting as its victims people with feelings of apprehension, confusion, and hopelessness.
