‘Want to know the effects of bullying so that you can take steps to salvage your mental health? Here are all the aftereffects victims suffer.
Bullying crushes your spirit. It sucks the joy out of life and reprograms the mind. If you aren’t careful, you’ll begin to believe the lies bullies tell you and see yourself through your bullies’ eyes.
Therefore, in this post, you will learn the effects of bullying so that you’ll recognize these aftereffects when you feel them.
Once you learn all about these crushing mental health consequences, you will be more compelled to take steps to protect your self-esteem.
This post is all about the effects of bullying so that you will become proactive in guarding your mental health from social leeches who wish to destroy it.
The Effects of Bullying
Sadly, bullies have ways of making you believe that, just maybe, they have a justifiable reason to bully you. However, you can’t seem to figure what it is.
Realize that this is your first clue that they’re lying to you. In other words, if someone tells you that you deserve bad treatment but can’t give you any reasons why, there may not be any reasons for their behavior.
Therefore, when you try to find out why, you’re probably searching for reasons that aren’t there. Understand that this is a sign that your bullies are only gaslighting you.
However, most victims of bullying don’t stop and think about these things. Therefore, they make extra efforts to explain themselves more clearly. Moreover, they cling to the hope that the bullies will go away and leave them alone.
If you suffer bullying, you must realize that your bullies may give you small reprieves from their harassment. Moreover, they may even act friendly toward you.
However, be warned! This is only a game they play to keep you confused and on the back foot! Put another way, bullies give you those breaks and occasional nicey-nice acts to get your hopes up and make you forget about the past.
Then, all of a sudden, they blindside you with another brutal attack. Therefore, understand that this is a mind-game they play.
This is equal to love-bombing by a person with narcissistic personality disorder. They build you up so that they can tear you back down again.
The effects of bullying: The Push and Pull Technique
Understand that the bullies are using the age-old push and pull technique to keep you trying to make friends out of them. As a result, it only keeps you trapped inside the bully/victim dynamic.
They will also recruit others to side with them. Again, they do all this to keep you confused. But know that this is how bullies maintain power over you.
In other words, if your bullies can keep your hopes up, it’s likely that you’ll feel compelled to keep jumping through hoops to prove yourself worthy.
The reprieves have the same purpose.
Here’s how it goes: Bullies stop bullying you for a while, and once you let your guard down and begin feeling safe and confident again, BAM! They attack! Therefore, realize that bullies, like all abusers, do this deliberately!
Over time, bullying can cause these 20 effects on you:
1. Hyper-vigilance
You’re always on guard. You no longer trust yourself to act on your own volition and spontaneity or make your own decisions.
In other words, you’re constantly self-monitoring. You carefully construct your every move so that you don’t look weird, st*pid, or off-putting to others.
Spontaneity is gone. For instance, if something is funny, most people laugh without having to think about it. That’s spontaneity. When you can even laugh at something funny because you’re too afraid of what others will think, that’s a bad sign.
Also, you don’t make your own decisions and act on your own volition because you’re afraid others will criticize you for it.
2. The Effects of Bullying:
Increasing self-doubt
Bullying fills you with uncertainty of how you come across to others. Moreover, you feel you must be extra careful not to be or sound too sensitive or like you’re whining when you report the abuse.
You doubt your abilities and your worth. Moreover you allow your bullies to gaslight you into believing that you somehow cause their abuse when you really do not.
3. You think that something is wrong with you.
Bullies often convince you that something is wrong with you. In fact, they may even try to make you believe that everything is wrong with you. However, you must realize that this is what they want you to think. Why? Because bullies are afraid that if you ever notice that they’re the ones with the issues, you just might grow a spine and tell them to piss off!
4. You second-guess yourself.
This is a close brother to self-doubt. You constantly wonder. “Did I make the right choice?” “Am I being too sensitive?” “Do I measure up to everyone else?”
Understand that this is no way to live. Therefore, it’s imperative that you stop caring what people think and just do what makes you feel good. Free yourself from the chains of other people’s approval and you experience total freedom.
5. The Effects of Bullying:
You Constantly replay and review bullying incidents to figure out what went wrong.
In other words, you ruminate. You mind plays the scenario over and over like a broken record. However, this often leaves you feeling worse.
So, stop this now! Realize that nothing went wrong but your bullies’ deplorable behavior. You must realize that you can’t control others behavior.
Each person decides how they’re going to act toward you. And once you realize that people choose how to treat you, you will no longer feel the need for any replays.
6. You lose your zest for life.
In other words, you lose your happiness and peace of mind. Also, you lose the excitement of things to come.
7. You lose your confidence.
Once you lose confidence in yourself, you’ll be to afraid to try new things for fear of failure. Moreover, you’ll give up on yourself.
As a result, you’ll live a mediocre life.
8. You have a constant inner critic.
In other words, you often engage in negative self-talk, even if it’s in your mind.
9. The Effects of Bullying:
You fear that you’re going bonkers.
Bullies have ways of making you feel like you’re going stark raving mad. This is due to the incessant gaslighting they dish out to keep you from noticing that it’s them who have the issues and not you.
10. You have a dreadful sense that time is passing and you’re missing out
When people bully you, they’ll block you from having friends and enjoying positive experiences that others get to enjoy. Therefore, bullying can give victims FOMO and the sense that they are, in fact, missing out on a lot of things in life.
11. You get a growing sense that you aren’t happy but you should be.
Bullying strips you of any happiness you might otherwise enjoy. Moreover, what bit of happiness you do manage to scrounge up for yourself is often an illusion.
For example, you might attach yourself to the wrong people and attract friends who are fake and only come around when they need something from you.
And you may think that they really care for you when they really don’t. That kind of happiness is a mirage and it’s fleeting.
12. The Effects of Bullying:
You believe you can’t do anything right.
Bullies have ways of making you believe that everything under the sun is wrong with you. Moreover, they make you think that you can’t do anything right.
Therefore, know that they have the issues, not you and that there are many things you can do right. See your bullies for who they are. And who they are, are your enemies who are out to destroy your confidence in your abilities.
13. You feel discombobulated and off-balance.
Bullying and peer abuse makes you feel off-balance. The bewilderment and confusion bullies cause you is the reason for it. Therefore, learn everything you can about bullying.
This means reading and learning about bullying from all angles! Moreover, it means learning about different types of bullies, their tactics, and the mindset behind those tactics.
I promise you that once you learn all about these things, you will feel so much better about yourself. Even better, you will be able to protect yourself more effectively.
14. You have a distrust in relationships.
Bullying can cause you to fear being harmed and suffering more bullying in the future. Therefore, you shut everyone out to be safe.
However, this is bad because, any time you withdraw from others, you cheat yourself out of wonderful opportunities to make friends. Moreover, you miss out on those who might prove to be true friends and wonderful assets to your life.
So, see total strangers as opportunities and give them a chance because, you just never know.
15. The Effects of Bullying:
You lose faith in humanity.
In other words, you adopt the belief that all people are inherently evil and enjoy seeing others suffer. Bullying can make you believe that other people just aren’t safe.
16. You have an overwhelming desire to escape and get away from the bullying environment.
When you’ve suffered severe and long-term bullying from the same toxic people in the same toxic place, all you want to do is to get away from the creeps! This goes especially if circumstances, such as finances, keep you stuck there.
Understand that this feeling is normal and that one day, a door will open and you’ll get the opportunity to pick up and leave. So, don’t give up hope.
17. You constantly live in the future.
In other words, you believe, “things will be better when I graduate.” Or, you may think, “Life will get better when I turn eighteen.”
The running theme in your mind will be that life will get better when you get another job, move away, get married, have children, etc.
Child and teen victims of school bullying often wish for the future. Therefore, because of the bullying you suffer in school now, you long for the future.
You daydream about the day when you can finally graduate and get away from the creeps who make your existence at school a living hell.
However, know that this is normal for anyone in your situation and it isn’t your fault.
The Effects of Bullying:
In Conclusion
If bullies are making your life a nightmare and you have any of the above symptoms, leave the toxic place, if you can. Why? Because, any time you’re so hurt and perplexed that you cannot tell which end is up, you’re living in hell, and it’s no way to live.
You deserve peace, happiness, and confidence. Go where you can flourish, and your spirit can get the nourishment it desperately needs.
This post is all about the effects of bullying so that you can recognize the symptoms and take steps to get your life back on track.
Related posts you’ll enjoy:
1. Psychological Effects of Gaslighting: 11 Ways it Impacts Victims
2. Smear Campaigns: 4 Tactics Bullies Use to Sully Your Reputation
3. Forgiveness Does Not Require Reconnection
4. The Explaining Trap: 3 Reasons Bullies Set It and How to Respond
5. How to Overcome Self Doubt: 7 Easy Mind Hacks to Achieve Success
This is so powerful! Thank you.
You’re most welcome. 😊
I understand so many of these points. Bullying travels with you to adult life, and your sense of self worth. I’m very shy with new people, to the point where I either talk to much, or not enough. I think the end part is to learn to love yourself and show yourself kindness.
I couldn’t agree more. And learn confidence and self-belief as well. I’m not shy anymore but around new people, I’m deliberately quiet until I get to know them. My quietness is only me feeling a person out. I feel everyone out that I meet.
I have struggled with the lasting effects of bullying my whole life. I have gone through almost all of these and still find myself stuck and old wounds opening up as I have witnessed my kids be victims of bullies. I never learned how to let all of this go when history kept repeating itself. How do you recommend that I start the process of healing? The anger and bitterness that I feel toward my old and new bullies is snowballing out of control. It has become debilitating. I want to confront them but they are stuck in their self bloated beliefs that they are not wrong in their behaviors.
My heart goes out to you and your children, Vicky. 💔 I can’t tell you how sorry I am that people have treated you so horribly. I want you to know that in no way are you responsible for their behavior and that you have just as much value as the next person. You and your kids are enough and you matter.
As far as how to heal yourself from the bullying and let go, I can only tell you what worked for me. And that was to cease contact from people who brought me drama and negativity. It was hard at first because I had to be friendless for a while. But I eventually attracted much better friends and it was worth it in the end. Also, I began reading about bullying and the dark side of human nature. And the things I learned were that bullying always comes from a place of insecurity and feelings of inadequacy in the bullies, though they’d never in this lifetime admit it. Finally, I had to get to know myself again. And, once you get to know yourself, you’ll get clear on what you will and will not tolerate from people. Know that there’s no law that says you have to put up with shoddy treatment from people. Wishing you the happiness and peace of mind that you so richly deserve!