What is the most common cause for self mutilation/cutting?

Self-mutilation: This behavior has multiple causes, usually a way of dealing with deep emotional & psychological pain. Many patients say that seeing blood helps them feel real, or alive. Some have a history of early trauma or abuse that expresses itself in the present. More psychotic people may do more destructive types of self-mutilation. Help is available through a good psychiatrist & psychotherapist.

Coping: There is no single cause for self-mutilating behavior. Generally, self-cutting is usually the result of an inability to cope in healthy ways with deep psychological distress. Some people have a hard time understanding, expressing, or managing their emotions. Cutting distracts them from these painful emotions and gives them a sense of control (albeit a false one). Talk to your doctor for more info.

Cutting: There are many reasons people cut, but a predominant theme surrounds issues of control of pain and body. Those who have been deeply sexually traumatized will occasionally be cutters to avoid dealing with feelings of rape trauma. People with eating disorders also may cut as a way of exerting control over their own body. There are many pother reasons as well, not just these.