Bruno Pugh
Bullying is more than harmless teasing or a childhood rite of passage. Scientific studies have proved that it can leave lasting scars. Therefore, everyone must understand its after-effects, including victims, guardians, prospective parents, teens, and adults. It’s the only way to prevent and support those affected by this often-overlooked form of abuse.
Trust Issues
After being scammed, it can be hard to trust again and believe that others will be better. This feeling is similar to bullying. When your family members, who are supposed to love you, hurt you, it can be scary to believe others won’t do the same. Trusting might seem risky since you worry about getting hurt again.
Self-Esteem
Constant bullying at a young age can make you feel terrible about yourself, which can lead to low self-esteem. When people treat you wrongly, you think you’re not good enough or assume you don’t matter. These negative emotions can cause inferiority and become insecurities that may persist until adulthood.
Mental Health Concerns
Bullying results in the development of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adulthood. It can make kids sad, scared, and lonely. The anxiety affects their ability to make friends or participate in school activities. Therefore, parents need to identify and stop this abuse early to protect their mental well-being.
Behavioral Problems
Adults who were bullied may struggle with aggression or difficulty in managing emotions. These built-up feelings can make them behave in ways that aren’t nice and wreck personal and professional relationships. It’s necessary to speak to someone if this happens to you.
Poor Interpersonal Skills
For instance, a person whose older sibling constantly teases them will assume they’re worthless and unwanted. Since they can’t communicate due to a lack of confidence, they become shy or scared to talk to others. Remember, treating others with kindness and respect makes others happy and safe.
Feelings of Worthlessness
When a relative always picks on you, it affects your self-worth, making it challenging to believe you’re unique. It’s easy to think, “If I were worth anything to them, they wouldn’t be mean to me.” But that’s wrong! It would be best to remember that you’re valuable and deserve to be treated well regardless of what others do or say.
Prolonged Resentment
We’re human! The anger and dislike towards people who hurt us can continue for years and decades if left unresolved. It can lead to long-term hate and issues that affect relationships within and outside the family. However, holding onto those bad memories can make it hard to trust others, so it’s essential to talk about them and try to let go.
Affected Physical Health
The stress from childhood abuse can have lasting effects on physical well-being. If violent, it’s possible to cause headaches, injuries, chronic pain, or autoimmune disorders. Regarding the disorders, your immune system can go weak from the continuous sadness that makes your body tired and sick.
Poor Coping Mechanisms
When youngsters get harassed, they may develop poor ways to handle their feelings, which are called coping mechanisms. They might start avoiding people or lashing out when they’re upset. This condition can cause problems with friendships and confidence later in life, including constant breakdowns.
Social Isolation
Another obvious consequence is when you hesitate to hang out with others or make new friends, even when you want to. You become afraid to talk to people because you worry about being teased or hurt. The feeling of loneliness can persist even after the cause of it has stopped, so it’s essential to speak up and seek help.
Family and Parenting Challenges
Bullying has the potential to ruin a family, both now and in the future. It can create problems for the parents as the kids don’t get along. Likewise, as an adult, the after-effects may affect how you handle your children. Since you’ve held on to the destructive emotions, you may become less patient or understanding with your little ones.
Counseling Needs
Kids who are bullied might need extra support and therapy to feel better about themselves. Usually, they can’t do this alone, even as grown-ups. So, they’ll need professional help to address the trauma, manage the emotional wounds, and recover from their past experiences.
Seeking Validation
Those who faced harassment as minors may seek validation from others to be loved and accepted. It’s like trying to fill a gap created by the hurtful things siblings said or did. When trying to compensate for the love they never got during childhood, they unconsciously say or do this to get external approval.
Perfectionism
The constant mockery of bullies can make children doubt their abilities, so they try extra hard to prove their worth when they’re mature. They want to show they’re valuable and stop feeling bad. For guardians, it’s important to remind them that it’s okay to make mistakes constantly; even our fingers aren’t perfect.
Imposter Syndrome
Those who faced intimidation early on in life are more prone to struggle with celebrating their wins when older. These people think they’re faking being good at something, doubting what they can achieve. When they somehow beat the odds, they still assume it’s a fluke and don’t deserve success.
Trust in Authority Figures
Children who don’t confide in grown-ups, like teachers or parents, usually have a history of being bullied or intimidated. Besides the fear, they may worry about getting in trouble or worsening things. So it’s tough to ask for help because they’re embarrassed or think no one can fix it. This dilemma makes it hard to get the support they need to live an everyday life.
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