As I was killing some time on Facebook the other day, I ran into an interesting (read: disturbing) Us Weekly post titled “Megan Fox: I Used to Cut Myself.”

(Us Weekly’s post was a link to the magazine’s article that’s actually based on a Rolling Stone interview with Fox.)

Despite her celebrity status (they’re not all as open as, say, Joey Pants or Maureen McCormick), I wasn’t too surprised to read Fox’s confession.

Self-injury – which can include everything from cutting, burning, scratching, and biting oneself to pulling one’s hair and banging one’s head against hard objects – isn’t new. Although self-injury is sometimes linked to suicidal thoughts or tendencies, as well as mental health conditions like borderline personality disorder, oftentimes self-injury is a way for the person to cope with emotional distress.

Self-injury seems to be more common among adolescents, especially female adolescents, but like many problems self-injury certainly isn’t limited to one demographic.

So, no – I wasn’t surprised to read Fox’s confession (especially after reading some of her other confessions, which included issues with self-loathing, anger, and violence).

I was, however, sort of surprised to read some of the comments Facebook users left under the Us Weekly post.

Note that these are only seven of – to date – 156 comments on the post. Also note that not each of them is negative.

However, those that are negative…

Wow.

If someone goes so far as to cause physical harm to him- or herself, doesn’t that scream, “Hey! Something is NOT right!”

If your best friend, or sister, or cousin, or daughter, or mother admitted to you she cut herself – that she intentionally inflicted wounds on herself – would your response be, “noone cares tramp go away!” Would you look at her and say, “i can’t think of anything i care less about.”

I don’t think so.

Yet, it seems that because Fox is a celebrity – an attractive celebrity who also seems to bring some sort of drama with her wherever she goes – suddenly she’s not worthy of the same kind of compassion as anyone else.

Hmm.

Is it that the public is sick of hearing about the problems of celebrities? People we just assume have it all together because they’re rich, famous, and beautiful? People with whom we get angry because we think they’re weak if they still manage to have problems despite their successes and gigantic bank accounts?

Or is it that we’ve come to see these people as something less than human? Mere figures meant for our entertainment who couldn’t possibly deal with the same kinds of mental and emotional issues as the rest of us because, after all, they’re less than human. They’re not real people.

I think it could be a combination of both of these, with a little misunderstanding thrown into mix.

Last December, Newsweek published Why She Cuts, an article about Becki Bagnato who began cutting herself at 13 years old, that takes a look at some of the statistics of cutting and self-injury. If you don’t know much about self-injury but want to, read it. Also consider checking out some of Psych Central’s posts on cutting and self-injury, as well as resources for people who are dealing with self-injury.

A little education can go a long way toward understanding and, possibly, a bit more compassion for people who deal with these issues regardless of their status.

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Ryan Kappel MSW,LSW (September 18, 2009)

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    Last reviewed: 18 Sep 2009