Our Troubled Teens

Staples. Paper clips. Needles. Pencil lead. Shards of wood, plastic and glass. They're all part of the "next step" new arsenal among troubled teens who have grown bored with simply cutting themselves and are now jamming themselves with everyday objects in a horrid ritual doctors are calling "self-embedding." Ironically, it is radiologists – not child psychologists and psychiatrists – who have sounded the alarm on what they're calling a "disturbing trend" among teens, some of whom are pushing sharp items so deep into their own flesh and muscle, many can only be detected by ultrasound and not X-rays.