DOES BULLYING IMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH?

(Maryam Akram, Karachi)

Bullying is defined as hurtful actions, repeated set of negative behaviors, habitual behaviors and interpersonal aggression towards powerless individuals. It is grouped into different categories such as cyber, emotional, physical, racist, secual and verbal bullying. Mental health refers to a state of wellbeing. It affects badly on mental health which leads to illness.
Bullying is an epidemic concern on which nobody talks about. It can be stated as a silent and serial killer. There is medically no cure available but psychologists have been able to reduce its symptoms. It is categorized into different types mentioned below:
- Cyber bullying: harassing someone by using emails, social media chat and inbox rooms, messages and pictures.
emotional bullying: refers to spreading rumors, excluding someone from activities and favoring a student means no equality.
- Physical bullying: involves kicking, pinching, hair pulling and threatening.
racist bullying: making mocks of anyone’s language, culture or dressing style leads to it.
- Sexual bullying: involves unwanted physical contact, saying inappropriate comments and flirting or bothering. It is incredibly common in schools, colleges and universities.
verbal bullying: mainly involves laughing at others, name calling and making jokes.
As I mentioned above, mental health is a state of wellbeing which is categorized as a positive and negative state. Positive mental health refers socially to good and well-being mental health. Negative mental health shows symptoms of mental illness such as headaches, depression, anxiety, feeling of sadness and low self-esteem. It influences thinking, feelings and acting badly.
It affects disastrously on mental health. Those who are bullied are found at higher risk for mental health problems which may cause short-term and long-term damage. Short-term damage leads to poor academic problems, difficulty in maintaining social relations and increased risk of substance use. However, long-term damage causes severe anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, change in sleeping and eating patterns, less confidence, and sadness. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development conducted a research and concluded that those who are bullied are at higher risk for depression. They further found that electronically bully-victims are also at increased risk for depression and experience negative issues. My late friend from Khohaat, was a victim of bullying. She was bullied all the time by their relatives and family members. She was told that you have bad luck, you are misfortune, you are not good at school, and you are nothing but a problem for us which left super little hope for efforts from getting bullied. As Milgram’s experiment tells us, what might the average person be capable of when under orders. She tried to conform to some social norms, like following dress codes and working hard domestically for betterment of the surroundings. However, she incredibly failed. When we know how to act in a certain group, life seems to go more smoothly. Adjusting behaviors or thoughts amid those who lack social thinking, positive motivation and right awareness always lead either short-term or short-term mental damage.
Furthermore, underweight or overweight and bullying have risen to become crucial public health issue.

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Maryam Akram
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