I’m lying in bed with the phone in my hand above my head, attempting to wake up by reading the BBC morning headlines. I scroll down to the features because the writer in me is always on the hunt for a good story, even when I’m sleepy. I click on The Teenagers Who Poison Themselves by Justin Parkinson. Why? I’m not sure, yet.

The more I read, I learn that self-poisoning is on the rise among young girls in the UK and Parkinson is attempting to answer the question, “What drives them to do it?”

“It’s like my brain has two bits: the happy bit and the bad bit,” says 18-year-old Jasmine. “The bad bit keeps pushing until it takes over. You feel like you’re losing control of yourself a little bit more and a little bit more. And then it happens.

“There’s something in my brain telling me to do it. It’s sort of like having a toddler who’s demanding things of you constantly. Eventually you just get so tired and the toddler is annoying you so much that you just give in.”

Jasmine’s words haunt me for hours.

Join me at Michelle DeRusha’s lovely blog for the rest of the story. I never imagined reading a feature on self-harming in the BBC News would lead to this discovery, an answer to the question, “What drives people to injure themselves?”