Bullying Hurts

Bullying hurts.
Bullying is one of the toughest situations anyone can experience in life.
Bullying is lonely, impersonal but also very personal.
It's frightening, intimidating and confusing.
It fills you with anger, rage, fear, anxiety, shame, sadness and all manner of destructive and depressing thoughts.
Bullying is a direct, continual attack on who you are as a person, an assault seemingly without end that will make you try anything you can think of to stop it, avoid it, escape it and anaesthesize the pain.
Bullying will cause you to question yourself and ask yourself all manner of disempowering questions; why me? what have I done to them? What's wrong with me? Why? Why? Why? Why? These questions are quite normal and they are also without answers.
Waste no time thinking about them.
You do not need to be bullied.
You may be asking yourself a different question now; How do I know? What do I know about bullying? This Is What I Know Bullying seemed to follow me around when I was growing up.
It was there at various schools I attended growing up.
I remember my efforts to stop it, the things that worked and the things that didn't.
I remember the people who did it.
I remember the people who encouraged my tormentors, who sided with them or laughed along.
I remember the people who turned a blind eye and I remember the people who supported me or offered their help.
I remember the physical, verbal and indirect forms bullying took and the way it affected everything in my life and changed me as a person.
Although it seems several lifetimes since it happened, I still have perfect recall of everything involved.
I remember how painful and distressing it was and how I was unable to admit this to myself or anyone else at the time.
There were bruises, damaged clothes and possessions, there were names and verbal intimidation.
There was aggression, laughter and disparaging remarks.
There was exclusion, people refusing to sit near me or speak to me or acknowledge me at all.
There were punches, kicks, shoves, pushes, stares, headbutts, insults, challenges, putdowns and threats.
There was a lot of fear, anger, frustration, anxiety, depression, sadness and rage.
There was a lot of shame.
There was also a lot of hope, ambition and determination.
Bullying had a profound effect on me.
It changed me and I had to struggle and fight and work to gain my confidence back.
It became a matter of endurance and survival.
I was doing my best at the time, but there are a lot of things I would now do differently, with the knowledge I have today.
These are the things I want to share with you because I now know that bullying can be prevented, it can be resolved and the effects it has on people can be overcome.
All you need is the right information and the courage to apply it.