Is my cousin faking cutting/depression?

[108]

I barely see her, since she lives in another city, but I have her on Facebook. She's very social. She is not shy at all. She's one of those persons who has 500 friends on FB.

anyway, she seems like such an attention seeker! One time, her family came to visit, and she showed me her "cuts". I DIDN'T EVEN ASK OR NOTICE THEM! She just said "look I cut myself", all casual. I didn't really say anything other than "oh are you emo". I know that was generalizing, but I couldn't think of anything to say. She has a dad, but her mom has been married like 4 times and they move a lot. Her mom isn't a drug addict or anything, but she's young(27) and has 4 children. She's a normal person tho. But I don't see why she would be like this. The only bad thing that maybe happens to her is moving a lot and therefore losing friends, but as I said, she makes friends fast.

also, there's a trend on FB where they answer questions, and put on x on the ones they have done. And there was a "have you self harmed"? I think she put that there just for attention, since that was so irrevelant to the other Q's. She just threw it in there.

my friend actually has depressive episodes, and the first time she got one, she isolated herself. She didn't come to school for a week and didn't even say she was depressed when she came back. She actually did anything in her power to hide it! She didn't eat and you could just tell she was different. She didn't even cut.

[David]

Just because a person isn't acting depressed or whatever, doesn't mean they aren't a cutter. One of my best friends was self harming throughout school, and outside of the lows he went through that caused him to cut, he was social, friendly, the joker of the group.

[Frank]

People cut because it is the only way they know to deal with their emotions.

Four marriages is a good sign that the mother is not capable of forming a healthy relationship, so the daughter has nobody to turn to.

She turns to cutting. While many cutters do try to keep the cutting secret, some of them display them.

It's easy to write her off as an attention seeker. She's desperately reaching out to someone to connect with. That's what she really needs.

[Tabithia]

She will be okay

[Tabithia]

It can be very hard to tell whether someone is faking depression and cutting themselves for attention.Then you would have to ask why would someone fake this,depression is not any way fun and cutting can be very dangerous.
Your cousin has moving around a lot and this could be the reason for her depression.She never gets a chance to settle anywhere and so friends are hard to come by.She arrives at a new place and must come across all friendly in order to break the ice with local kids.This can be hard for she is always trying to sell her personality on to new possible friends.
People deal with depression differently,and this can largely be decided upon the sufferers age and circumstance.I was never very out going but I had a group of friends that I was comfortable with.But they never knew of my self-harming and we never discussed my depression,at least not until I reached my mid-20's after I was hospitalised for the first time.But when I was suicidal,I would become more out going in an attempt to mask my true intentions.
Also,not everyone who suffers from depression cuts themselves.Again this is largely dependant on the sufferer's mental state.When I first cut myself,in the mid 80's,I was not aware of any other kids doing such a thing,and if they were,they were doing a good job of hiding it like myself.Back then I never heard of the term "Self-Harming",but today it does appear to have become common practice.
Your cousin may or may not be depressed,only a trained professional can deliver such a diagnosis.All you can do is keep the lines of communication open and listen to her whenever she needs to talk.But if you grow increasingly concerned about her safety and behaviour,then you would be advised to talk to her mother about your concerns.Good luck.