Dear Ann Landers,
was amazed by the letter from the girl who cut herself with jagged pieces of glass because she needed to feel pain and watch herself bleed. I thought I was the only one in the world who did that. It started for me when I was 15.1 was having a good time at a beach party when suddenly I wanted to hurt myself and bleed. I went off 2 0 4 ANN LANDERS alone with a can of beer, slashed my wrist with the metal edge and en-joyed the pain and the blood. When the bleeding got heavy, I got scared and asked my friends for help. They thought I had tried to kill myself, but that wasn't true. I was taken to the emergency room of a hospital, had some stitches and didn't try it again for about three months. The urge hit me again when I was studying for an exam, couldn't understand an equation and got mad at myself. I took a razor blade and carved some designs on my arm. There was a lot of blood, but I put ad-hesive tape on the wounds and the bleeding stopped. I want to be a surgeon-sort of combine business with pleasure. Do you think I am crazy? Some of my friends do. Please reply.

Dear Medford,
Your compulsion to punish yourself physically and the pleasure you receive from seeing blood indicate an urgent need for psychiatric help. Tell the school counselor, your parents or the family doctor at once. You are in a bad way, dear.