You think of a cutter and what is the first thing that comes to mind?

“Oh they just want attention.”

“I would help them, but I do not want to ‘get involved’.”

You see a high school girl who looks like she could be modeling for GAP kids

And what do you think?

“Ew! Look at that anorexic girl.”

“Someone needs to feed her a hamburger.”

What you do not know is that she has had cancer for 2 months and cannot keep down a lot of food.

You convince yourself that they are just doing it for attention

That only the emo people do that (right?)

That it is not your fault (right?)

You are right

It may not be your fault but it is still your story

And from the way you do not write the sentence to help the people you know need it

You decide to pretend you would help those who you assume need it in your ironic table of contents

And from the way you decided to skip the chapter on how you did not help the girl who actually had a cutting problem

You instead decided to write one about the girl who has cancer and how you wish you could just “help her” with her anorexia

See the thing is

People who self-harm do not do it for attention

If she wanted that much attention she could just wear short shorts and tight tops so she could fit into the new trend that has got every critic raving

And if he wanted some attention he could just bench press a few hundred pounds and instantly gain a few hundred new friends on Facebook

See people who self-harm do it to release pain

It is definitely the wrong way to do so

But it is the only way they know how to punctuate their cry for help in the last sentence in the their soon-to-be last chapter

And that is definitely something worth “getting involved” with and helping to fix

Because they are hurting themselves to mend themselves

And is that not the irony of it all?