Continued from previous page.  More then half the patients interviewed by Contero in the study previously mentioned used the word “miserable” when describing their childhood.  Child abuse was reported sixty-two percent of the time, and sexual abuse by half.  The average age for the abuse occurred six with a duration of five years.  but as said earlier, just because a person was not abused, or did not have the “miserable” childhood reported does not mean they are protected from self-harm.  In a report done by 20/20, Tom Jarriel described self injury as an addiction, described the need to injure is “like an alcoholic reaching for a drink, the violent act of cutting or burning oneself- for many people is a means to cope with or escape from problems that disrupt their lives.”  The idea that self-mutilation is an addiction is one that has been debated by many.  Physiological studies have shown that cutting does, indeed, reduce physical tension.   One theory is that thoughts or reminders of trauma trigger an endorphin response that releases the body’s natural opiates and provides a form of analgesia.  In a British study researches reported “markedly higher enkephalin levels in self injurers who were actively cutting than in those who had not hurt themselves in at least two months.”  Enkephalins are opiate like chemicals closely related to endorphins; they are both narcotics and reduce the sense of pain.  In an unpublished study, six out of eight subjects did not register any pain that could be applied within ethical limits when they had “extreme urges to cut.”  These responses, some theorize, may take on the nature of an addiction, with the cutters experiencing opiate withdrawal and cravings in the absence of stress or traumatic triggers. More general "stuff" There is approximatly 2 million self injuring americans, and 1 in 8 college students have admitted to doing something that would classify as self injury.