" The way people process feelings over the course of a day is such a well-established habit that most of us never realize that that is what we're doing. For cutters, every strong feeling is a new and unpleasant occurrence that cannot be calmly processed. They feel, as psychiatrist Edward Podvoll describes it, that something physical "has to happen". Yet often they cannot account for what led up to this state of impending, inevitable explosion. It is as if emotions are split off from thought, and they are compelled to act in response to a feeling they cannot even name. "

― Marilee Strong , A Bright Red Scream: Self-Mutilation and the Language of Pain