Cutting, Not Coping: How A Mom Helped Her Daughter Address the Urge to Self-Harm

On a sunny day of an otherwise rainy beach week, Holly saw her daughter’s cry for help. Wearing a bathing suit, the 12-year-old could no longer hide the signs of cutting — fresh pink scratches and a web of thin white scars along her torso and arms.

“My daughter’s decision to harm herself — this incredible, beautiful being I’d spent over a decade trying to protect — was far from acceptable to me as a mom. It was heartbreaking. I needed to understand why,” Holly shares in the summer issue of Vim & Vigor, our family health magazine.