The darkness after Twilight?

I can't help but feel that this may be an unintended side effect of the popular book series for young teens.

Self-injury on the rise among young people

The young heroine of Twilight is willing to not only bleed and suffer injury, but also DIE for the person she loves.

I know this is an extreme correlation, but something lurking in the back of my head won't let it go.

As the article points out, there's also the undue pressure that is put on young people in today's society to be pretty much perfect. This endeavor towards perfection creates a void of feeling, so people are using other means to provoke or fill the void.

Nine Inch Nail lyrics are popping into my head: "I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real...."

It's a disturbing and sad trend. I had a good friend in high school who used to create long gashes across her arms and legs with a razor blade. No matter how much we pleaded with her, she wouldn't stop. Thankfully her parents were aware and got her help, but the image of her arms crisscrossed with sharp and glaring red lines is not one I'm likely to forget any time soon.

I think it must feel like having survived an accident with significant injuries on the inside. You just slide into shock and don't feel anything at all. And in order to really treat the injuries you have to go through a lot of pain. But instead, maybe these kids are just checking to see their capacity to survive the pain with slight outside injuries. If they can put a band-aid on the physical cuts and watch them fade, maybe there's some hope for the inside ones or at the very least they can be ignored.

Surprising as I write this how much emotion I'm feeling on this subject. There's guilt, sadness, empathy, and helplessness. Crazy. I think I'll leave this be for now, but I wanted to throw it out there. Feel free to write any reactions or tell me I'm nuts.