I [23f] "ratted" my sister [16f] because she's cleaning herself so hard she's leaving bruises. She had a fight with mom, hates me and nothing is solved. What should I do?

Edit: I said "bruise" a lot, but apparently "rashes" is a better word. She doesn't have purple skin from a blunt hit or anything like that.

Yesterday I noticed my sister had a big bruised patch on the side if her ribs. It was huge and there were darker red spots all over the place, like she had directly scratched herself very hard for a long time.

I was very taken aback and she didn't want to talk about it. I kept asking because that is not normal. I thought she could have had an allergic reaction but it was very localized so it was probably something else.

After many tries she said that she sometimes bruises herself when showering because she scratches really hard because she wants to be "clean".

I talked to her about how it's not at all necessary to get to that point of hurting herself. She started getting impatient and saying it's not my problem, what do I care, to mind my own business, etc.

I told her it was worrisome to me that she could hurt herself and that opened her up a little bit. She said that she often cleans herself with humid disposable towels in school when she feels dirty, and shower up to 3 times a day. She admitted she has bruised herself in different places over time, and other things.

I had never noticed any of this.

Later I told mom because, you know, this could be serious and she needs to know. I tried to be compassionate in how I relayed the info to her. She then spoke to my sister and my sister totally started freaking out and told mom to leave her room, and supposedly burrowed herself into her bed while ignoring mom and telling her to leave until she finally left.

The raised her voices a little bit, it was very unpleasant and a little scary. Later, I asked my sister if she was OK and she told me to shut the F up and mind my own business for once. She was angry and there didn't seem to be much of a point in pursuing a conversation.

So now I don't know. She's mad at everyone and I don't know what we should do. She didn't have lunch with us like she would normally do.

I fear I could have exaggerated but at the same time, I don't know why she's doing any of this and fear it could hurt her mental health in the long run.

What should I/we do now? How should I handle this and how should I talk to my sister so she feels comfortable to talk about what she feels and we can help her in any way we can?

tl;dr: Sister bruises herself because she scratches herself so hard while cleaning herself, and has a fixation with not being dirty. I told mom and my sister totally shut down when she tried to talk with her. Sister hates everyone now. What should we do?

Submitted September 01, 2019 at 10:37AM by RepresentativeBelt3 https://ift.tt/2HC2kd8