Bullying

What does bullying look like?

Relationships with your friends become extremely important in a teenager’s life. Most of these relationships are positive and healthy, but sometimes we may meet people who bully us or push us around. Bullying is an aggressive act with an intention to hurt someone on purpose, and can take on different forms.

Bullying can be verbal when someone calls you names with the intention to embarrass, hurt, or shame you. It can also be physical when someone uses aggression against you or your belongings. Even isolation, ostracising and ignoring are forms of bullying. Destroying things that belong to you also counts as bullying. If someone tries to damage your reputation or damages your friendships with other people, that too is bullying. All this can take place in person or online, in the form of cyberbullying.

Strategies to Stop Bullying

People who bully others typically do it as they derive a sense of power from the exchange.

The first thing you can do is tell the person who is bullying you to stop. Be firm and strong in what you say. Standing up to the bullies is the first step in balancing the power in the relationship.

Secondly, you can walk away from the person that is hurting you, and ask someone for help. This could be a teacher or a friend, or even a parent. Ignoring the bully will show them that you are not letting them hurt you.

If you are experiencing cyberbullying, take screenshots of all the interactions and keep them before going to a teacher or trusted adult for help.