Message Boards Could Be Encouraging Cutting

May 1, 2006 — -- Sarah Brecht started cutting herself when she was a teenager.

"The triggers were when I felt anger, sadness," Brecht said.

She felt she was alone with her compulsion to injure herself until she found a community of people just like her online.

Researchers at Cornell University say there are more than 500 online message boards for self-injurers. But, along with the messages of support, there are also many young people swapping methods and photos of their injuries.

"Normally I just use a regular serrated kitchen knife," one young person posted.

"The handful of self-injurers we spoke to said their injuries got worse when they were there logging onto the [sites]," said Janis Whitlock of the Department of Human Development at Cornell University.

Whitlock, the study's lead author, worries that the messages on unmoderated boards may discourage victims from seeking the help they need.

"Seeing picture of others injuring themselves online gave me ideas about different ways to injure myself," Brecht said. "It made me feel less alone, but it didn't help my recovery."

Brecht stopped visiting the boards when she was 19. Now 25, she hasn't hurt herself in years and wrote a book about her struggle, "Beyond the Knife," to send a positive message to others trying to overcome cutting.

ABC's Gigi Stone reported this story for "Good Morning America."