Share Your Experience With Bullying Here

Share your experiences with bullying

Hello friends! How are you all doing? How’s life going? Hope you are all doing well and safe and taking care of yourselves. Today we are going to be talking about bullying. Bullying affects many people who are in school and life in general. Maybe you have been someone who has been bullied, watched a friend go through it, or have done the bullying yourself. Bullying can really affect someone’s school experience, life, and mental health. I want you to know that *you are not alone.* I am hoping that we can raise some awareness and start a conversation. Feel free to join in, this is a safe space.

What is bullying?

When we often think of bullying we have the image of an intimidating teen beating up a smaller classmate or a child shoving another inside hallway locker. These are perfect examples of bullying but it’s also important to acknowledge that bullying behavior is more complex and varied than the typical stereotypes. There are many different kinds of bullying like emotional, physical, social, and cyber bullying. In every form though it hurts. Bullying is when someone makes you feel less than the person you are. Bullying often makes someone feel really small and like they don’t belong. A definition I found while doing research is “bullying is when someone or a group of people use their power to target another individual with repeated unwanted words or actions those targeted or hurt either physically or emotionally and have a hard time stopping what is happening to them.”

To break down this definition I will highlight the key points

1. Bullying is repetitive

2. Has the intentions of hurting a person or group

3. It involves a power imbalance

4. Bullying comes in many forms

Types of bullying

Physical: Physical bullying is when someone uses their body to harm others. This is when someone pushes, shoves, hits, kicks, bites, or otherwise hurts another persons body. It can also include taking and damaging someone else’s things.

Verbal: Verbal bullying is when someone uses their words to hurt others, examples include teasing, name-calling, threats, jokes, rumors, gossip, and saying things about someone that aren’t true.

Social: Social bullying is damaging and destroying someone’s social reputation and relationships. It can include spreading a story or damaging someone’s reputation or having others ignore or threaten a friend.

Cyber Bullying: Cyber bullying takes place online like social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and cell phones. It is repeated behavior aimed at scaring, angering, or shaming. Examples includes spreading lies, posting embarrassing photos/videos on someone’s social media, sending abusive or threatening messages, impersonating someone and sending messages to others on behalf or through fake accounts.

Signs someone is being bullied

• Unexplained injuries
• Lost or destroyed clothing books electronics or jewelry
• Frequent headaches or stomach aches feeling sick or faking illness
• Changing and eating habits awake suddenly skipping meals or binge eating. People make them home from school hungry because they didn’t eat lunch
• Difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares
• Declining grades, lost interest in school, or not wanting to go to school
• Sudden loss of friends or avoidance of social situations
• Feeling helpless or decrease self-esteem
• Destructive behavior such as running away from home harming themselves or talk about suicide
• Other mental or physical signs can occur; this is just a short list

Effects of Bullying

Bullying can have such harmful consequences. People who are bullied can experience negative physical, social, emotional, academic, and mental health issues. People who are bullied are more likely to experience:

• Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness
• Changes and sleep and eating patterns
• Loss of interest in activities the ones enjoyed
• Health complaints
• Decreased academic performance
• Skipping or dropping out of school
• Feeling shame guilt embarrassment in fear
• Low self-esteem
• Shyness
• Poor economic or job performance
• Isolation
• Feeling you don’t belong
• Fear of going to school
• Again this is a short list of effects; there are many more
  
  

If you are being bullied what can you do?

• Know you do not deserve what is happening to you
• Tell someone; parents a teacher or a trusted adult
• Develop a plan about how you can respond to the situation
• With the help of an adult sad how other students might help
• Connect with listener here at cups
• Find anti bullying organization to learn and have an education about bullying and it’s effects

Who does the bullying?

Sometimes we think about the big tough guy on the playground pushes everyone around but you can also be the cheerleader or a quiet kid. It’s not about the appearance that matters; it’s their behaviors. Students who bully can be any size, age, grade, or gender. People that bully often have struggles they are going through.

If you bully what can you do?

• Understand that your actions are hurting someone
• Think about ways to respond positively to others
• Acknowledge that everyone deserves respect despite the differences that are part of that world
• Talk with someone; your parents a teacher or trusted out and ask for help
• Take time to reflect on why you were doing what you were doing

Bystanders what can you do?

A by standard is someone who witnesses bullying either in person or online. Anyone can be a bystander but it is important that you stand up to what you are seeing. You play a crucial role in getting involved and help to stop the bullying. By standards can either stand on the sidelines and watch what is happening or they can step in and take action to stop. It is hard to know what to do when someone else is getting bullied and your options would also depend on what’s going on and who is around. It's important to recognize that bullying is everyone’s problem and that it’s a big deal to someone who is being bullied. you can be the one to help break the chain and cycle of being bullied. Some things you can do:

• Let others know that you don’t accept bullying or your school and others will be more willing to speak up to
• If you see bullying you can tell in adult
• Be a friend to the person being bullied and remind them that they don’t deserve to be bullied nobody ever does
• Join anti bullying campaigns and awareness events around your school or start one yourself
• Invite the person being bullied to hang out with you
• Show kindness to everyone including anyone that’s experiencing bullying you can give them a compliment about something they’re doing well and that can make a big difference
• Work towards an environment where everyone feels accepted

Discussion Questions

What have been you own experiences with bullying? How has it effected you?

What would you say to someone who is struggling with bullying?

Anything you would like to add?