Published on 12, July, 2020
Were any of you bullied as children/teenagers? I was subjected to mild mocking/teasing at prep school, but that was nothing like the severe verbal bullying I was subjected to at public school. I was introverted,shy,badly coordinated and socially awkward/naive. In other . words, not like the usual brash and extremely self confident people that went there. Nearly 50 years later and I still struggle with the psychological effects of it. I've never been able to pursue further education in a bricks and mortar setting for fear of being bullied and mocked My 1st psych admission was at the start of my last term at public school, the A level term.Hence no A levels and no degree.
My self belief and sense of self worth is gossamer thin. Ditto my self confidence. If I do well at something my mind says 'everyone can'. If I do badly at something then I'm stupid.
Bullying and Autism are really difficult issues, as just like with bullying and LGBT’s in many different situations - I would normally be inclined to signpost people to potential sources of professional help, especially since bullying appears to be getting worse in our times (perhaps because more people are sharing their experiences) but it seems to be getting worse not better with professional involvement, including in schools, home, workplaces, etc - there does come a point where the failures to tackle bulling (not by shutting down or silencing the targets of such bullying) needs to come to the fore and those in positions of power and athority do need to be called out and challenged on thier failures - it comes down to the penalties for bullying not being severe enough to act as a deterrent to such abuses of power against the targets of bullying - I’ve always believed that the police and the courts have a crucial role to play, as the act of bullying another person does not even come under the remit of criminal law, like rape and sexual assault offences do, because bullying is a criminal act, even if in childhood - we don’t allow children to be groomed for sexual crimes, so why does bullying get a free pass? In all cases of bullying, the police must always become involved from the outset and offenders must always be brought before the courts and there must always be a criminal trial