Why do people stigmatize cutting as one of the many self-injury behaviors? Why can’t that just be embraced as a neutral behavior? Who says that cutting should be pathologized? Hmm…

If you’re cutting, I do recommend getting help, and that’s not because I think it’s morally bad. Developing alternative less harmful coping strategies to dealing with emotional pain can be difficult but ultimately more lasting and effective. Cutting can leave lasting physical impacts in physical or emotional scarring. It can also become addictive as a result of the physical and emotional responses. IOW, it can often dull or distract from emotional pain temporarily… but the pain returns, doesn’t it? And there are other ways to get beyond that pain.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.