Claire is startled by a sound, shivering with fear on her bed, coupled with intermittent panic attacks. Nowadays she's startled by almost every kind of sound.
She feels tired and confused. She is also distracted with thoughts of how to fight back when Blair and her entourage crosses her path in school today.
Bullying is an act that has been around for a while and it is known to manifest in different forms, either pronounced or subtle. The effect is usually psychological rather than physical.
The act of suppressing or intimidating an individual, stripping them of their right to speak, or to express themselves in any way can be perceived to be an act of bullying.
Bullying is not limited to relationships where there is an upward hierarchy such as between a boss and an employee. It can also occur between people operating on a similar level and calibre but with one side feeling superior than the other. Dominating, demeaning and repressive behaviour can also occur in schools, offices, cyberspace and within our communities.
Different forms of bullying:
Physical Bullying
This is the most common and easily identifiable type of bullying as it involves the attacker inflicting physical pain on their victims. You don’t always have to be the physically stronger person to bully someone as bullying can manifest in many ways, as identified below.
Verbal Bullying
This type of bullying involves calling people names, using demeaning words or swearing at someone to deliberately hurt them. Often this type of aggressive behaviour is done to gain psychological power over the victims’ emotions and right of choice.
Relational Bullying
Similar to manipulation, this is a subtle form of bullying that is targeted at both the victim’s emotions and their relationship with others. The bully spreads rumours publicly and is capable of using aggressive confrontation.
Cyberbullying
This is when the internet is used as a medium to harass and maliciously attack an individual, by digital bullies.‘Trolls’ is the term used to describe faceless and nameless perpetrators. who sadly have been responsible for the increase in the number of suicides.
Sexual Bullying
A terrifying form of bullying that can lead to sexual acts that are harmful and humiliating, with potential for repeated occurrences. Uninvited touching, vulgar languages, name-calling or sexting are examples of this type of bullying.
Prejudicial Bullying
When people are bullied due to differences, which could be based on grounds of culture, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or colour. More often than not, the victims usually belong to a minority group and are singled out for such an attack.
The repercussion of being bullyied…
Claire became very doubtful of everything. Do I look beautiful, is my hair well packed, are my shoes clean enough? Do my eyes really look funny? Am I fat? Maybe I am not as intelligent as I presume?
Claire had to live each day battling with “trying to be good enough”.
Bullying can cause victims to have self-esteem issues with damaging and far-reaching consequences. The person being bullied begins to undervalue themselves, is psychologically traumatised, has poor self-worth with body image issues. At work, losing confidence when dealing with your boss and peers can be professionally damaging to their career.
Some Bully-Victims rise up and become bullies themselves in the quest for regaining a sense of power and control in their lives. In this case, bullying is a learnt behaviour. Other types of bullies are Popular bullies, Serial Bullies, Group Bullies and indifferent bullies.
How can we tackle bullying?
Here at Be Kind Movement, we believe in choosing kindness.. Our Kindness in School Programme (KISP) propagates ten values of kindness which includes empathy. When we show empathy and compassion to others, and go out of our way to make them happy, we find our own happiness too, physically (as proven by science) and emotionally.
But bullying is more complex than simply making a choice, so it often takes everyone involved to identify, and deal with the root causes of bullying. All forms of bullying whether subtle or direct, should be reported whether at school, to your boss or to the higher authority governing the institution or state where the act is been perpetuated.
Both the Bully and the victim should receive support and Bullying UK offers a confidential helpline to support people affected by bullying. This week we are proud to support their campaign for anti-bullying week 2020. Find out more about them today at https://www.bullying.co.uk.