Who else was bullied in high school?

I relate to this alot. You're not alone and you're very brave for taking the steps to go through therapy. Hope things get better for you!

Same here. I always despised my secondary school for failing to support me.

The trauma of it all has made me have a slight aversion to anything that even slightly smacks of educational system

Adult bullying at work is a nasty experience. I've had to fight for support since diagnosis, and have faced some unpleasant discrimination. HR are a waste of time as their role is to protect the company. Fortunately, I belong to a union, who have been mostly very supportive once nudged enough.

It seems that many of us have experienced bullying at school. Also, I got sent to a Family and Education Service when I got bullied to help me both emotionally and to catch up with school work.

I was bullied in school, which only got worst because of my outbursts and fights that happened with the bullies, I was dubbed a psycho by the bullies and they used that against me. 

Oddly enough I never got in trouble for the fights, well only once I got sent to 'isolation' the next day, I was actually aways considered the victim by the teachers for better or worse.
Teachers liked me at school, if I recall correctly they always said I was quiet, well behaved and got on with work.

I then got to see therapist during my time in school thanks to my younger brother getting diagnosed with autism they referred me in as well, it almost instantly mellowed me out as I say.. or rather.. I think talking about things to them help me build large coping mechanisms... Suddenly all the name calling and bullying didn't phase me anymore.. At least to an extent. I did still have a limit but it was much much higher. Bullies had no fuel, nothing to exploit.. Not more fights unless they pushed me too far.

That made school life a bit better but after year 10 I basically just stopped going to school all together, Went back to do exams.. school lost my course work which made me lose whatever trust I had left in them. What would have been a C or B in English ended in a D. Waste of my effort and mental energy.

Memories of school are triggering for me.. I don't like to recall much at all about that part of my life, 13-16 years old.. So it's pretty much a giant hole in my timeline that I consciously try to erase.

Yep - seemed to get through school aged 5-10 ok, but when I got to secondary school aged 11 and above it changed. I was targeted by a few unpleasant individuals because I was relatively gifted academincally, and enjoyed conversing with teachers. I was different.

Mostly it was via social exclusion, name calling etc. The main bully did try and make it a physical bullying after a while, but when I beat his ass this stopped. Just because I am calm and non-violent doesn't mean I cannot defend myself. Fortunately, that beat down dissuaded others from ever trying the same, and things actually improved somewhat.

I was labelled an outsider all through secondary school though due to the actions of these few influential children. This limited the friendships I was able to have, and has affected me all through my life. I lack confidence behind the mask I put on to survive everyday life.

I'm wondering if it might be useful to start another thread about adult bullying. I've often been pressured into things at work I should have said no to and that others declined, leading to more stress. It is part of people pleasing, avoiding confrontation and not valuing myself more. I assume this is common.

Aww same here. Don’t be ashamed of that though. You can’t help who you are. I got purposely bullied and they wouldn’t give in until I cried and then I get bullied for crying. I don’t think anyone in this day and age understands difficulties 

I got bullied in Secondary School. The problem is that the students back in my day, did not understand my difficulty. Also, I was quite sensitive and I easily cried.

Yeah bullied quite alot, it's was like everyone knew I was different, even some of the teacher did it !

I was bullied since nursery. The kids would always tell me to go away if I walked near the staff were also very rude to me. Remember my mum telling me that I always used to wait by the exit door and look through the window so I would run out and get away from that nursery! Primary school I got bullied by this know it all kid who was well very pretentious and up him self and he didn’t like being the second oldest in the year group. Also got bullied by older boys and girls and this one teacher also hated me and made me cry and then I get shouted at for crying! Would get ganged up on and I had no friends therefore I would cry again I mean come on I had every right! Secondary well practically the same but it was a much bigger school so more bullies and bully teachers, moved to a new one and I didn’t fit in as I was too “chavy” and northern sounding. Sorry I don’t really want to go into details as this is very upsetting for me. Also got manipulated by family in 2019 and a “shop manager” in 20222/23. Won’t even do anything I want to do as I feel guilty and I’m not meant to be happy. That’s what I got told but I feel weaker not doing anything I want but if I do what I want to do I feel guilty and shame and it makes me feel sick. Sorry for the rant 

I was always picked on because I had long hair, the music I was listening to, and the big one was, because I didn't like football. Back then, in 2010 onwards. if you were a boy and you had long hair and didn't like football the you wern't a boy, I know these days that statement doesn't stand, But I was always picked on becasue of the music I was listing too for sure, Everyone was listing to LMFAO, I was listing to The Beatles and most of my classmates would always say, "The Beatles are gay" Thats the kind of stuff that would happen for sure, and they also found it fun i was listing to heavy music too, like Alice Cooper and Kiss, Still to this day I never understood why that was funny to them. 

I really like this.

So if something happens once it could be a mistake, an accident, a poor choice of words or actions but if it's repeatedly and intentional then it's bullying. 

Thanks so much for sharing! 

Within the below article is the observation:

"Some schools use the useful mnemonic of ‘STOP’ (Several Times On Purpose) to distinguish bullying from the one-off or accidental hurting of a child or children."

https://www.leeds.gov.uk/one-minute-guides/bullying#:~:text=Some%20schools%20use%20the%20useful,%2C%20threats%20and%20name%2Dcalling.

In the workplace (and wider community) I have found this a useful mnemonic to help remind me to assess whether an experience is likely a single error or perhaps bullying.

Some weekends I would hang out with them, down the local launderette in winter (because it was warm), every one of them neglected by their parents, left to hustle and scavenge for the least bit of cash... and then once thoroughly bored I would skip off home for dinner and spend the evening happily doing homework. I left school with more qualifications than all eight of those 'mates' combined. Some of them didn't even bother to turn up for exams. I was the only one who went to college, and later on the only one who doesn't have a criminal record, who hasn't spent over 50% of the intervening years unemployed, or homeless, or the victim of horrendous violence, the only one who didn't suffer from drug or alcohol addiction. 

On the fllipside I have suffered in ways totally unreconizable to them, but that's another story. 

I used to be bullied in primary and secondary; secondary school was worse as I was in an all girls' school and got picked on for being too quiet, being too sensitive as I cried a lot and also special interests in anime/manga. My teachers barely supported me and used to say I wasn't being bullied (in particular I moved to another form class in Year 9 due to being bullied by one of my ex-friends who appeared nice in front of teachers whilst talking about me behind my back to others).

I also had depression/suicidal tendencies and had to be taken out of school often because of it - I often went to medical rooms so I could avoid classes as I didn't want to be there. I eventually had good friends in Year 11 and finished my exams but didn't like the fact that I had next to no support from teachers (which caused me to hate the education system).

I knew other girls who were either bullied like myself or had mental health issues - also another ex-friend of mine picked on an autistic girl (who I was friends with and still am today) after she hit her by accident with a rounders bat. This individual (my ex-friend) dropped out of school and went to the US, I ended my friendship 3+ years ago because they changed very drastically and became overly narcissistic/materialistic + turned to drug selling. I do recall them making fun of me of being sensitive once, saying when I was around them they felt weak (that and I had an experience of being dared to drink alcohol at 15).

I was bullied at Junior school, usually by toughs who liked to punch faces for the sake of it. I found a way around it - doing all my homework in my head on the walk home [it was easy], not filling in the answers, then getting detention at breaktimes to complete the work, which kept me inside... away from the bullies.   

I was also bullied at High school, but in a much more insidious way. The former bullies from previous times had grown to basically being in charge of every part of school life. The whole social status of every male was based upon who could 'have' (i.e. beat up) whom, and I was at the bottom. I had one friend who had looked up to me from the old school and I had protected him  in many ways, and so he introduced me to his mates. Those mates were in the very top stratum, major major bullies to everyone, so they were skeptical at first but eventually included me in their group. One of this group decided in his head that I 'owed' him for his being so nice to me and that unfortunately became the basis of our 'friendship.' Any idiot could see that it was patently false and that, y'know, his status wouldn't last forever, but at the time he milked it for all that it was worth. I see him sometimes, even now, with a stupid smug look on his face when he looks back - founded on total fantasy. his (horriifyingly limited) goals in life utterly transparent to me.

Yet at one point this *** was on top of me for my every thought and action, and I had thought I was only enduring it for his protection from being bullied by any of the other general wankers waiting in the wings with their burgeoning testosterone-fuelled aggression running through every steroid-enhanced bicep ready to slaughter me for absolutely nothing other than for being 'weaker' in the concrete jungle. And he called himself my mate!

They were quite simply jealous.

I have always been a good speller and good with the computer. In spelling tests I'd frequenlty score 10 out of 10 and I'd be accused by another kid of cheating.

Another time was when I was making something in Microsoft Publisher. Some kid complained and picked on me because "I have to make everything perfect".

Same. I was bullied by other kids wherever I went. Because of this I ended up feeling more comfortable being around adults, and still do today as an adult myself.