So as these young girls go about their innocent childhoods, they are now shown what’s supposed to be sexy and how they should act, dress and be like; just like their dolls Sindy, Barbie and Bratz etc. with their ultra skinny figures supporting the ‘must be’ a size minus 0 as the most desirable size to be, and for them to be able to achieve all this despite scoffing all those sweets, Big Mac’s, milkshakes and other junk food they're being bombarded with on TV and thrust upon them, they are then encouraged to master the art of eating, then throwing it back up again.  Remember it’s impossible to achieve size 0, it can't really exist as it means you're not really here!  And as a result, other than suffering from anorexia and being bulimic, you're now mentally ill as well . Boy’s are equally disillusioned, and who most probably know all there is to know about sex even though they're still only 9 years old, because most households have satellites dishes and cable networks with adult channels, their lazy parents can’t be bothered to put a bar on it so the kids can have instant access to free trailers for all the kind of porn you could think off and that's freely available.
I heard some parents even say; "Well, it saves us having to explain about sex and all that, when they can see it all for themselves."  

Control, look at it at a micro level; Mum’s the ‘homemaker’ her mind is preoccupied, by the house work, shopping and "what’s for dinner tonight", - getting the kid’s uniforms ready for school.  We understand there are men and women who do many cross sections and even equally divided workloads and house chores etc., but we're trying to just address an hypothetical and quite normally accepted running of order in most households in the US and UK.

Dad is constantly worried about his work security, his wages cannot keep up with inflation and his pension scheme means he will get peanuts to live on once he’s retired.  The kid’s are needing new clothing and shoes, holiday time is on its way and he is presently exceeding his bank overdraft.  To escape his problems he sits deep into the sofa with a six-pack in the fridge watching numbskulling rubbish on TV.

7 year old Lucy is upstairs, oblivious to what’s going on around her whilst listening to the 1,000 tunes available on her i-pod and dressing her ‘Bratz’ collection of dolls.  

Her elder brother, 9 year old Jimmy, has locked himself in his bedroom, ‘in his fragile state of mind’ he truly believes he is indistructable.  He's watched so many films, DVD’s and videos etc. and witnesses with his own eyes characters getting beaten-up, shot, stabbed and obliterated to pieces, only to get-up and walk away unharmed and do it or go through all again in the next sequence!

Jimmy has no real concept of death, wars mean nothing to him, ‘hero’s’ don’t die, Schwarzenegger, Cruise, Stallone or Willis might get shot, stabbed or blown-up, but are soon back on their feet and normal again.  No one can tell Jimmy it’s all fiction, for his ‘seen’ for himself it’s all too ‘real’ coming from the corner of his own little bedroom, he has ‘seen’ all this from his video games, in fact he is presently deeply engrossed ‘playing’ ‘Grand Theft Auto VIII’ where he blatantly goes around shooting whoever gets in his way and tries to stop him from stealing his dream car a Porshe 9-11’, [hmm, that number again], his mother has been shouting for him to come down for dinner, he can hear her calls but gets a kind of satisfaction from knowing he is getting her wound-up and annoyed.  He thinks to himself; '...if she dares try to come into my room, I’ll blow her fucking head off!'

 Jimmy and Lucy’s 16 year old sister ‘Newyark’, has also locked herself inside her bedroom, she thinks everyone around her has no idea how cool and great she is, she’s nursing a septic naval which is oozing puss after it being a pierced.  She remembers the same kind of thing happened to her friend ‘Paris’, when she had a nipple pierced, at first they thought it would fall off, her nipple that is, it got that poisonous.  However, after constant nursing and hospital treatment for hepatitis it soon got better, you can hardly notice the nipple is twice its original size, and hey she doesn’t intend to go topless anyway. 

She is convinced she will be the next ‘X-Factor’ finalist, her daddy has always called ‘Princess’, and she truly believes she is, or at least will become one as soon as she meets her ‘Prince Charming’.  Her parents have unwittingly brainwashed her; "Remember Newyark, as the song New York say’s; ‘...if you can make here, your making it anywhere..."
It’s the same type of thing when a expectant mother gives birth to her baby, instead of the onlooker seeing the baby, whom we will presume just for this example - is as ugly as hell and more reminiscent to an alien than that of a human being.  The onlooker out of politeness, responds; ‘Ah, isn’t she/he lovely, looks dead like you!’  Well parents are very much like the same, they might have a ugly child but to them their beautiful, and quite frankly that’s all good.  But then again it’s no good when a parent fails to parent, it’s doing the child no good whatsoever, if for instance when they sing they sound like a shower of cats and dogs, to then go on and compliment them so much so, that they even begin to lie to them and say ‘you’ could be as good as ‘Shirley Temple or Brittney Spears when you’re older’. 

Now the poor disillusioned Newyark thinks she too ‘can’ sing, despite the truth being, she really cannot, so she applies for an audition on ‘X-Factor’ only to be told the truth by Simon Cowell what a monstrous voice she has and how in heavens did she ever think she could sing in the first place? 

However, Cowell and the programmes producers think it makes great TV, so Newyark’s presentation and voice, despite being really bad, her audition will still be shown, and there you have it.  Newyark is ridiculed in front of millions of viewers, she can no longer go to the shops without being recognised, as the girl with ‘no personality and a really shit voice’.

Newyark has not left her bedroom since the audition 7 months ago, - she even did her own naval piercing and now has 20 more on each ear.  She's progressed and has discovered she quite enjoys self harming and has even learnt how to cut her name into the skin on her forearm using a razor blade.  She feels the sensation of the cut, the pain it causes, the site of her own blood helps her to completely block out the real pain what she is experiencing and feeling deep down inside of her.

Self-injury, cutting or self-mutilation affects millions of people worldwide, mostly adolescents and young adults, and mostly female, self-abusers intentionally and regularly inflict harm on themselves through various and often hidden methods, that may include cutting, carving words or symbols into the skin, burning, ingesting harmful substances, punching, breaking bones, biting, pulling hair and piercing the skin.

 

Self-abusers typically injure as a way to express emotions and gain control, not to commit suicide. The abuse may be spontaneous or planned.

Signs & Symptoms

Self-injurers can be secretive about their self-harm and may hide their injuries under clothing or restrict the abuse to areas of the body that are easily hidden.

Symptoms may include:

• Fresh cuts or wounds often in the form of small, linear cuts
• Frequent bruises
• Broken bones
• Scars
• Denying self-harm with excuses of accidents or clumsiness
• Wearing clothing that covers the arms and legs even in hot weather

For more information and help, visit Mental Health America's factsheet about self-injury:
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/information/get-info/self-injury