Effects of Bullying
I was very excited to see the choices of our second essay from our instructor that given to us. The choices of the essay are either the ‘causes or effects of bullying’. Without a doubt and I decided to write the effects of bullying thus is because of the many recent incidents involving bullying. The first case that comes to mind is that of Megan Meier case in 2006, she was just 13 years old when she hanged herself to death in a response to cyber bullying. Type the term “bullying” into Google and the number of news and stories alone leaves no doubt that bullying is very common. Some would say that it is a national crisis especially for teenagers. There are three main effects of bullying on the victims that can lead to long-term emotional damage, substance abuse, and violent behavior.
The less visible but very dangerous effects of bullying on victims are long term emotional damages. It can happen with simple comments such as “You are so bad.” or “You’re disgusting.” The effects can leave the victims with feelings of low self-esteem, depression and or isolation. Some of teens experience name calling directed at their race or appearance. In the article ‘Rowling the Bus’, on second paragraph author Paul Logan talks about his experience of being bullied because he was small, had no father, and wore outdated clothing along with thick glasses. As a result, he became isolated and began to dislike sports-oriented activities because a fear of humiliation due to his performance. Why do kids take small events and overrate their importance? According to one Discovery Health and Fit article, the brains of teens are not fully developed until the mid-twenties. Because they are still strongly influenced by events during development, teens can be very fragile if forced to go through these issues without assistance or means of coping with them.
Another effect of bullying on the victims can lead to the abuse of alcohol and drugs. This is because these afford the victim a temporary way they may escape from the pain that they are facing. Besides, once the alcohol or drugs in their body they will feel separated from reality or falsely empowered and able to get away from the gray sky. There was a fatal case in Santa Rosa back July 2011. Takeimi Rao was only 14 years old when she died due to alcohol poisoning. Base on Medicinenet.com, the most recent statistics indicate that 14% of teens have been intoxicated in the past year. Further, about 8% of the teens confirmed that they drink at least five or more alcoholic beverages is the row. This type of binge consumption is known to lead to further dependence upon alcohol and sometimes experimentation with other drugs that eventually leads to addiction and subsequent health problems.
Finally, bullying can lead victims to react violently, much as one can observe in a trapped animal. Like that trapped animal, when the victim’s “fight or flight” choices do not include the ability to escape, the victim can be driven to undertake violent, physical acts such as revenge against their tormentor or displaced violence against others unrelated to the bullying. Severe, long-term bullying can lead the victim to self-inflicted violence or suicide in an attempt to resolve the conflict. There was a case in Singapore back in March 2011 in which young lady, Krystal Aki Mizoguchi, committed suicide because of she wasn’t able to get into the dream school that she was hoping for to satisfy a controlling boyfriend.. According to the statistic from ‘Teacher Vision.com ‘ that every two hours a person under twenty five year old commits suicide because of the effects of bullying. This ultimate escape from a bad situation is the culmination of feelings of powerlessness and shame that arise from bullying.
We can see how serious these effects on the bullied may contribute to the creation of further victims. The effects from emotional damage can leave a victims depressed, seeking escape through alcohol and drug abuse, or drives the victim to inflict violence against themselves or others around them. The behavior that drives the victim to feel empowered, seek justice, or simply escape torment can lead to further pain and even their own death. Society needs to step up and support teens through more and better communication; interest in their school activities, or simply spending more time with them. In this way, teens will feel the care and love from their friends and family. Once the bullying can be exposed, it and its negative effects can be dealt with before causing permanent damage.