Dean, a 14-year-old girl, has a 3-inch by 8-inch scar on her hip. It’s usually numb with nerve damage but when pressed, it sometimes flares up with shooting pain. Every time the weather gets warm enough to go to the beach, it makes her feel embarrassed. Dean made this scar, one small act at a time. It’s not her only one. “I would try and stay clean, and then relapse, and then try and stay clean, and relapse,” she said. Dean, who prefers to remain anonymous, has struggled with self-harm in various ways since the age of 9, she told The Epoch Times. Dean said she started to self-harm at a time when she felt stressed and lonely. Some of her friends had moved away, and self-harm felt like a way to exert control in a chaotic situation. Then, it became an addiction. “About the time when I was 12, …