How Does Bullying Affect Your Kid?
That’s been the case for everyone. One girl grabs another by the hair and drags her off the swing at the playground. This is the lunchroom when “the evil youngster” knocks over a more petite boy’s plate, spilling his food. A group of students teases the youngest student in class, calling them names and saying “dumb.”
From an adult’s vantage point, bullying is cruel and pointless, yet it is regrettably all too frequent among children. There will be a period of bewilderment, misunderstanding, Fraud, And Misinterpretation on the audience’s side, as there is with every kind of public dialogue. There is a pressing need to clear up the current and long-standing ambiguity and misconceptions surrounding bullying.
Bullied Children
Bullied children often struggle with various physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and mental health. Plus, Bullied children are more prone to encounter the following.
- Depression, anxiety, increased melancholy and loneliness, altered sleeping and eating habits, and a loss of interest in formerly enjoyable activities are among the symptoms.
- Possible long-term effects on maturity.
- Problems with Health
- GPA drops, exam scores go down, and students drop out of school. They are more likely to enroll in fewer classes or maybe quit altogether.
- Some harassed kids could act out in brutal ways.
Kids Who Bully
Children who pick on others are more likely to become aggressive and destructive adults. Kids who involve in mistreatment are more likely to:
- Substance abuse is a problem in both adolescents and adults.
- Fight, destroy property, and quit your studies
- Initiate Sexual Activity As Early As Possible
- People who have been convicted of crimes or issued traffic tickets
- Abuse their significant others, families, or children as an adult.
Adverse Effects of Bullying on Mental Health
Signs of home withdrawal, a drop in academic performance, and an eagerness to avoid school are all things to keep an eye out for if you know a kid who has been harassed at school. The effects of bullying can be felt immediately and later on in life. Bullying can be done due to the following concerns:
- Anxiety
- Worry lands feelings of being alone
- Melancholy
- Feeling of sadness
- Discouragement for formerly pleasurable pursuits
- Trouble falling asleep
- I can’t seem to focus.
- Drug and alcohol abuse
- An increased propensity toward suicide ideation and behavior.
Homophobic bullying is a severe issue in today’s schools. It’s more common than bullying based on race, gender, or religion. It’s terrible when bullies pick on members of marginalized groups. Misplaced feelings of self-hatred are a devastating outcome of bullying.
Anxiety
You probably know about the “fight or flight” response during an anxiety attack if you suffer from anxiety. Adrenaline and a racing heart give you everything you need to survive, but they also hinder your ability to make rational decisions.
Understandably, you can’t make up your mind. The points made here have solid neuroscientific backing. The prefrontal cortex is where we do our decoding. Anxiety dampens activity in this area. The part of the brain responsible for making rational choices is slowed down and disengaged when worrying is present.
Stress can make it hard to make decisions, but it can also make it easier. If you’re under a lot of pressure or emotionally unstable, you may make snap decisions without giving them much thought. The concern might make it harder to take in and process all the data you need to make good choices.
Last but not least, worry might often lead us to choose the “safe” choice. This may be the finest choice, but it could also be the worst. And if worry has already caused you to make bad choices, you may be much more reluctant to do so in the future.
The Neuroendocrine Reaction to Stress
Bullying is a form of psychological and physical stress that can activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (Dallman, 2003; McEwen and McEwen, 2015). Physiologically and psychologically, pressure has a wide range of impacts, affecting the levels of a wide range of hormones and biomarkers and, in the end, shaping how people act. HPA and other hormones aid adaptation and survival, but too high hormone levels may be harmful.
Consequences on Your Mind and Your Social Life
According to a 2000 analysis by Hawker and Boulton, victims of bullying frequently experience negative emotions and behaviors, such as depression, anxiety, and even self-harm. It’s possible that men, in particular, may have the following externalizing problems. A study by Rueger and colleagues in 2011 found that being bullied by one’s peers consistently correlated with experiencing temporal disorientation. Positive psychological and cognitive outcomes occurred among children forced for an extended period during the school year.
Social Interaction Difficulties
As a result of peer pressure, exclusion, or loss, people often experience what is known as “social pain.” An emotional toll can be quantified in many ways; for example, one bully victim said, “I feel like they’ve been hitting me with a stick for the past 42 years” (Vaillancourt et al., 2013a, p. 242).
People often use physical pain analogies (e.g., “It broke my heart when she called me ugly.”) while describing social pain, such as humiliation, oppression, or rejection. This may be because the brain systems responsible for processing physical and social pain are often intertwined (Eisenberger, 2012). These fMRI findings may indicate different processes in that brain area, such as detecting conflict or mistakes, having different conceptions or purposes for the task, or having different levels of difficulty with the job, as mentioned by Eisenberger and Leiberman (2004).
For the Final Word
Bullying is a significant issue that has severe repercussions for all those involved. The problem is exacerbated by people’s apathy, a hangover from the days when bullying was accepted by most.
The first step in this direction is to cultivate a culture that is both welcoming and proactive. This is challenging for adults; think of how awful it must be for kids. This means that adults need to take charge and set a good example. The only way to stop mistreatment for good is to keep the topic of its things front and center in a public address. It’s important to show our kids that they can always talk to us about anything and that we’ll always be there for them. Sometimes kids can’t speak out for themselves. This has to be our unified cry.