I read a post today from the blog called acatloverxxx, and she talked a lot about depression and how bullying can impact that. So many people have dealt with bullying in their lives, and even more have battled with depression. It’s such a universal thing that people, that its worth having an open dialogue on how to help solve the problem.
Statistically, at least 28% of US students in the grades 6th through 12th have experienced bullying, and almost 20% of that occurs during high school. On top of that 30% of students admit to bullying when asked in a survey. Statistics don’t even show the true severity of the problem because so many young kids don’t admit to being bullied or doing the bullying when asked.
Even though anti-bullying has been a very prevalent topic lately, I feel it still isn’t taken as seriously as it should be. Personally, I think a lot of people talk about how bad bullying is without doing something to stop it when its actually happening. It’s so important to step in when you witness bullying because it actually can make a huge difference. A whopping 70% of students have seen bullying happen. And when a bystander actually steps in, the bullying stops in 10 seconds, 57% of the time. Not only can stepping in stop the bullying, but it also makes the victim feel like they actually have someone on their side. I try to never be a bystander when I see hate like this happening, because by being a bystander you are just indirectly contributing to the bullying.
It’s also important to note that not all bullying happens face-to-face. Especially with the amount of social media we have today, I think people find it a lot easier to say horrible things to people that they would never actually say to their face. The fact of the matter is that whether you say something to someone’s face or online, the words still have the same, hurtful impact.
Bullying takes such a toll on peoples mental health, and it can often lead to depression and other issues in children’s lives. A misconception that has always really bothered me, is when people say that kids don’t suffer from depression. I don’t understand how people can think that kids mental health and their emotions, can’t be the same as someone slightly older. Especially with bullying that is occurring more and more at a younger age, it would be ridiculous to think that a young kid couldn’t be depressed. That’s why I think mental health should be addressed in our education as early as elementary school. I think it would be so beneficial to our education system and it might even help prevent bullying.
While progress has been made in our society to help stop bullying, I think there is still so much more that we can do. Especially with the new age of social media, we must come together to find new ways to combat bullying, and focus on spreading kindness whenever we can.
Around the World with Jess 