The Effects of the Many Difeerent Faces of Bullying

“Statistics show that nearly 160,000 students fear attending school for they are afraid of being bullied.” (U.S. Department of Education reported by ABC 20/20)

All over the world bullying has become a massive problem, which should no longer be ignored; consequently, the cost is far worst imaginable, and regrettably it is increasing and progressively getting out of control.

Short and Long-Term Effects

It is difficult to determine what type of effects the end results will be after being a victim of any type of bullying, the truth is, that it will definitely cause some psychological issues within the victims. Male victims suffer from anxiety and depression, unlike females who may also suffer from depression, but more than likely develop an eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia. Other common effects are sleeping disorders (difficult sleeping and or nightmares, which may or may not involve the bully); low self-esteem (feeling bad about themselves; worthless, the feeling of emptiness, etc.), educational accomplishment (victims rather stay home than attend school, for fear of what the bully may do to them) and suicide (taking their own lives by hanging, overdosing on a flask of pills, etc.).

“A study showed that being a victim of bullying in middle childhood almost doubles the odds of having psychotic symptoms during adolescence…... While the data seem to imply that experiencing bullying could play a role (‘a causative’ role) in the eventual emergence of psychotic symptoms, it was also possible that those “children who were on path to developing psychotic disorders also engaged in behaviors during early childhood that made them more likely to be victims of bullying.” (Nestor Lopez- Duran, PhD)

The Archives of General Psychiatry published a study of psychiatric symptoms which was performed on 5,813 children. This study conducted on the children at the age of 8 was categorized into four different groups, 1) have been both, bullies and victims themselves, 2) only bullies, 3) only victims and 4) have been neither bullies nor victims. Female victims only of bullying showed a higher rate for psychiatric hospitalization and medication use; however, males who were both bullies and victims also demonstrated a higher risk of psychiatric medication use. Nonetheless, the males who were victims at the age of 8 whose psychiatric symptoms were controlled proved that the use of psychiatric medication or hospitalizations did not become an issue. (Childhood Bullying Behavior and Later Psychiatric Hospital and Psychopharmacologic Treatment: Findings from the Finnish 1981 Birth Cohort Study Archives of General Psychiatry, 66 (9), 1005-1012)

Bullycide

Bullying like “physical- any physical contact with another individual (hitting, punching, kicking, etc.,); verbal- name-calling, teasing, insulting and or offensive remarks; emotional- subjected