ilikesallydonovan:
scotchtapeofficial:
someoneintheshadow456:
candidlyautistic:
autasticanna:
Facts that adults don’t tell you about bullying
– Communication doesn’t work on bullies. Telling a bully they’re making you feel bad is the wrong way to go. They want to make you feel bad. That’s the point.
– being kind to a bully doesn’t always mean they’ll stop. Sometimes it means they’ll just use your kindness to manipulate you while still continuing to bully you.
– not every bully has a sympathetically tragic home life. Sometimes people are just mean. Sometimes people just get off on hurting others.
– on that note, a tough home life is a reason, not an excuse. You don’t have to put up with bullying because somebody’s life sucks, just like you don’t have to let someone mug you because they’re broke.
– in order to forgive someone, they have to apologize first. If your bully has not apologized to you, you do not owe them anything.
– getting bullied as a kid can still mess you up in adult life. Maybe kids grow out of being bullies, but the marks they left often don’t go away.
– there are ways to get people to stop bullying you, but they almost all involve being mean back.
– as long as parents keep raising shitty bullying kids, there will be bullies. No amount of assemblies and hand-drawn posters will fix the problem. It’s the parents’ fault.
– It’s not your responsibility to fix your bully or to stop the abuse they send your way, but some adults sure will act like it is.
– Many times (especially in the case of girls) your friends can be your bullies. This makes things even worse as these are people who know you and your intimate secrets and use them to their advantage. If your friends are bullies, don’t take crap from them. Get new friends.
im gonna throw in that its never your fault, people will pick a target to gang up on because theyd rather it be you than them. even if you think “this must be because im weird”- everyone is weird, in different ways. anyone can be made a target. it’s not just you for some reason in particular, i promise.
Having been bullied during one time if your life does not mean that every new set of people you will meet will start to bully you. Bullying develops out of a certain environment. Once there’s a change your environment, there’s a good chance that your new situation will be bullying-free.
Bullying does not develop spontaneously. Yes, some people are more likely to become victims of bullying (because they’re disabled or fat or queer or …, or even just because their parents are), but it takes people who want to be bullies to make the bullying happen. I know it may not feel this way right now, but the vast majority of people does not engage in bullying. So you can be fat, disabled and queer, and people will not bully you because they are decent human beings.
(Actually, odds are that later in life you will find out that the majority of the people you really like also have a history of bullying. Somehow we former victims of bullying subconsciously gravitate towards each other.)
Also, if you need to talk to someone about bullying, my inbox is open for you. I’ve been there, and I know how much it is worth to have someone who will listen to you and not brush you off.
Think Things 