How can cutting satisfy people with depression or problems?

Cutting: Self inflicted mutilation by cutting is one way that some people cope. It is not a healthy coping mechanism. People may cut themselves because they feel emotionally numb & it allows them to feel something. Some cut to distract from anxiety, depression or stress. Some people cut as a form of self- punishment. Some cut in the mistaken thought that it will let out evil or bad parts of themselves.

Cutting: Yes, among other things, such as anxiety, anger and control issues over one's body and one's life. There is no one answer for this. As brutally simple as the act seems in and of itself, the emotional impetus behind it are often multilayered, contradictory, complex, and deeply personal.

A symptom of abuse: Cutting rarely has anything to do with suicide or a cry for help. It is strongly associated with a childhood history of severe physical, verbal, sexual, & emotional abuse. While it may be self-punitive, more often it is an attempt to feel alive, when one's adaptation to abuse included deadening one's emotional experience. It indicates serious emotional injury that requires intensive psychotherapy

No explaining it: It's usually seen in people who are trapped in abusive situations. Zoo animals, I've been told, commonly self-mutilate as well. In such families, the person who's being "driven crazy" is commonly the one designated as "mentally ill" and sent for care. There are often no easy answers.