‘Want to know about bullying and the human stress response? Here’s everything you need to know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bullying and the Human Stress Response go hand in hand. Bullying automatically activates this response in victims.

Whenever bullies accost their target, their body instinctively goes into survival mode.  Therefore, the automatic response is either to fight or flee.

But what happens when their bodies stay in that state due to long-term bullying?

In this post, you will learn all about bullying and the human stress response. You will also learn what happens when a person stays in survival mode for longer than usual.

Once you learn all about these crucial details, you will become more proactive in protecting yourself from bullying.

This post is all about the human stress response, so you will understand the mechanisms by which bullying affects the brain and the sympathetic nervous system.

Bullying and the Human stress Response

Bullying automatically throws the victim’s body into survival mode. We no longer fight saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths to survive. However, our bodies don’t know the difference.

Therefore, bullying activates the same human survival instinct that wild animals did during prehistoric times. When bullies approach you, your bloodstream floods itself with adrenaline.

This is useful in emergencies because it lets you run faster from a pack of wolves. Moreover, it gives you the strength that you wouldn’t usually have. This is the stamina you need to fight off people who want to harm or kill you.

It’s all a part of the survival instinct that all humans have. However, this burst of adrenaline is only meant to be temporary and subsides once the danger has passed.

Therefore, if you live on this adrenaline for too long, it can have devastating consequences.

the effects of Long-term bullying on the sympathetic nervous system.

A certain amount of stress is healthy because it helps us to get things done. However, too much stress for too long can cause significant damage.

According to the Cleveland Clinic website, “Your sympathetic nervous system is a network of nerves that helps your body activate its ‘fight-or-flight’ response. This system’s activity increases when you’re stressed. It also kicks in when you’re in danger or physically active.

Its effects include increasing your heart rate and breathing ability, improving your eyesight, and slowing down processes like digestion.”( https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23262-sympathetic-nervous-system-sns-fight-or-flight#:~:text=Your%20sympathetic%20nervous%20system%20is%20best%20known%20for%20its%20role,your%20get%20out%20of%20danger. )

Bullying and the Human Stress Response:

What happens when you live in survival mode for too long?

The effects are devastating! After so long, bullying can screw up the target’s Sympathetic Nervous System. It can cause confusion and emotional numbness.

Moreover, the constant bullying puts your fight-or-flight response into overdrive. After bullies have bullied you for so long, it causes adverse changes in your brain.

It causes your thinking ability to decline. Also, your brain rewires itself to expect a hostile environment. In other words, it will create new neural pathways to support this.

When you live in survival mode, the logical part of your brain automatically shuts down. Therefore, the primal part of your brain takes over.

What are the most common outcomes?

1. If people bully you in school, your grades fall, and class performance suffers.

As we all should know, bullying can have a devastating effect on grades and class performance. Here’s how:

Anytime you are a victim of bullying, you are on constant alert for an attack. It feels as if you have a target on your back and you must grow eyes in the back of your head. In other words, you become hyper-vigilant.

When you must focus so much on protecting yourself, safety takes priority over studying lessons. How can one concentrate on schoolwork? You can’t study when people constantly bombard you with threats, taunts, name-calling, and physical violence.

How can you learn effectively when you’re stuck in never-ending fight-or-flight mode? It’s almost impossible! I tell you this because it happened to me.

Therefore, is it any wonder that the majority of victims have such poor grades?

2. Bullying and The Human Stress Response:

Learned helplessness.

When you suffer bullying, many people repeatedly tell you that you’ll never amount to anything. After hearing the same crap repeatedly for so long, you begin to believe it yourself.

Therefore, a condition, known as “Learned Helplessness,” develops. And, soon, you stop trying altogether.

Bullying can affect ALL areas of your life. Not only social, but also academic and achievements.

3. Bullying stunts victims’ social development.

The bullied brain has difficulty developing properly. Social intelligence may not keep you from becoming a victim of bullying. However, it will lessen your chances of it.

Social intelligence always has, and always will, supersede book smarts. It will get you much further than college degrees, awards, and credentials alone.

Moreover, it is the reason high school dropouts have become millionaires. And it is also why many college graduates have ended up flipping burgers at McDonald’s.

Social intelligence is THE most important quality you can have. It’s the highest-paid skill and most important asset in the entire universe.

But, sadly, most victims have had their confidence and charisma bullied out of them.

4. Bullying and the Human Stress Response:

Social withdrawal.

However, if you suffer bullying, the abuse can batter your self-esteem into oblivion. And, to cope with it, you may withdraw from the rest of the world.

When you’ve been bullied for so long, you become deathly afraid of other people. Also, you come to believe that you’re inferior to everyone else.

Therefore, you’re afraid to talk, scared to mingle, and fearful of social situations. You retreat into yourself and live inside your own head.

You may create a fantasy world where you feel safe, wanted, and loved. It’s a world of imaginary people who accept you. As a result, you shut out the “real world” and live in this fantasy world- this safe haven you’ve created.

This is not good because, when this happens, you stop watching people and the world around you. As a result, you stop learning the social graces and nuances that you need to know to nurture relationships and create a good life for yourself.

5. You become socially awkward.

In other words, you become too quiet, shy, and reserved.

You look right through people instead of smiling and saying hello. You become sullen and spaced out instead of happy, upbeat, and engaging.

Also, you feel numb instead of the emotions you should feel at different times.

Therefore, it stunts your social development!

6. Other negative outcomes you may face.

You will have trouble making your own choices. Why? Because you won’t trust yourself to make the right decisions for your life, especially if you are a child.

Relentless bullying can cause children to lose the ability to discern abuse when they experience it. They may make wrong choices to reach safety. This usually happens due to changes in their brains.

Bullying can also affect emotional control. You may suffer loss of cognitive abilities and a severely diminished ability to control emotions. This is why victims often snap and do irrational things when the pressure builds to the breaking point.

This happens especially with children. Because their brains are still developing, kids are more likely to have defects in emotional regulation.

Bullying and the Human Stress Response:

Flowers Can’t Grow and Bloom Without Sunlight

Bullying causes self-doubt. And self-doubt is the killer of dreams. It comes when a person is consistently showered with toxicity.

Toxicity comes from toxic people- bullies and abusers. When all a person gets is insults and abuse for a long time, they become exhausted.  And any positivity they once had is slowly drained from them until they’re totally depleted of it.

Eventually, if you aren’t careful, you’ll start seeing yourself through the eyes of your bullies. And you’ll give up. And, when others look at you, they will see a person who’s lackluster and slow.

When you’re a target of bullying, you’re like a flower that gets nothing but constant rain. The flower doesn’t grow and develop properly.

The consistent abuse zaps your energy and keeps you hyper-vigilant and on guard 24/7- waiting for the other shoe to drop.

You lose your happiness, confidence, pride, will, and purpose in life. In essence, your bullies take away your good qualities and turn you into a person you don’t even recognize anymore.

This is no way to live.

So, what can you do?

Never accept the bullshit bullies try to cram down your throat. I want you to realize that they don’t know you at all. They may claim they know you more than you know yourself.

The truth is, nobody can possibly know you like you know yourself. And anyone who tells you otherwise is lying through their teeth.

1. Bullying and The Human Stress Response:

Refuse to accept their definition of you.

Understand that bullies and abusers are miserable people who want you to be as miserable as they are. Therefore, stay away from those people. They aren’t worth your time or energy.

Remember that there’s always hope. You’re worth much more than what your bullies say you are. And you’re worth more than you may think you are.

Never let bullies destroy the things inside you that matter the most. That is your self-love, self-respect, confidence, and sense of pride. Those things are yours and not for anyone else to have!

2. Remove yourself from the environment if possible.

Focus on self-care. If at all possible, remove yourself from the bullying environment. Go to a new place where you can grow and flourish.

Transfer to a place where you can make friends. Be your own best friend. Be your own hero. And be your own sunlight!

Keep company with people who let you shine and let the sun shine on you!

Remember that a plant cannot grow in a hostile environment with no sunlight or water. And neither can human beings flourish in fight-or-flight mode.

Constant survival mode is no way to live.

With knowledge comes empowerment!

This post is all about bullying and the human stress response so that you will be more aware of the outcomes and start defending yourself now.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. The Bullied Brain: 7 Ways Bullying Affects Mental Health 

2. Fight Flight Freeze Fawn: 4 Stress Responses of Bullying Victims

3. Bullying Survival Mode: 5 Things Victims of Bullying Do Wrong

4. Bullying and the Fight-or-Flight Response

5. Effects of Bullying on the Victim: 13 Symptoms of Bullied People