Will Hall recently did a show on bullying and it’s ramifications with Dawn Menken on Madness Radio.
The shows excerpt is here:
What are the lasting impacts of taunting, teasing, and physical harassment between children? Why are kids who are different singled out and picked on? What can parents do if their children are victims of bullies?
You can listen to it here:
Today there is an article supporting the fact that childhood trauma does indeed add to adults mental health burdens. Of course all manner of trauma can do this. This is just one more.
Children who are bullied at school are up to four times more likely than their peers to develop psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations, delusions and paranoia – and the more severe the bullying the more severe the symptoms.
Professor Dieter Wolke, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Warwick Medical School, told the Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Liverpool, that around 5 per cent of the general population displayed psychotic-like symptoms – and the vast majority were likely to have been bullied at school.
He told Annual Meeting delegates that bullying in school can be divided into two types: overt bullying, including punching, kicking and physical intimidation; and relational bullying, such as spreading rumours and cyber-bullying which can lead to the victim being ostracised.
Children who experience psychotic symptoms are 16 times more likely to develop full-blown psychosis later in their lives. (read the rest)
One of the worst teachers I had 15 yrs ago has since became a school counsellor! I was shocked when I read my nephew’s ‘back to school’ program and saw her listed as his counsellor. Who knows. Maybe she learned something from the experience when I called her out on some behaviour in a newspaper article while I was in grade 12?
*wicked grin*
Yet I still let that experience — feeling guilty about publicly humiliating her, not realizing at time of print that I had included details to identify her to her friends/family/peers/principal (apparently she was the only female teacher of that subject in that grade in that area) — keep me from pursuing journalism now, or even worrying about sharing strong opinions on the web, so, when her career appears to have moved on, why am I still afraid to move forward with the career I most wanted to pursue back then?
(Oh. Maybe because journalism isn’t much of a career option these days? Right.)
yeah, I had a teacher who constantly gave me C’s, when all my work was A’s. So I finished 7th grade with a C average. He assumed because I walked funny that I was stupid. Never been the same since.
I still remember my first bully. Darren. Grade One.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how such early and persistent bullying at school has (so far) shaped me for life. Darren was the first in a long line.
Of course I realize most bullies were themselves bullied. I hold teachers more responsible since they often saw what was going on and looked away. Sometimes teachers were themselves the bullies.
oh yeah, teachers can indeed be the bullies…I had a horribly cruel first grade teacher…I was not one of her victims but she certainly caused permanent issues in several children…it was disgusting and I knew it at age 6.
well this just throws a kink in the whole biomedical model/broken brain theory…
trauma has been implicated in future mental distress forever…and anyone who has worked with people with labels knows that a good 80% have admitted trauma…then there are the folks who don’t realize they’ve been traumatized…we live in an inherently abusive society..it’s hard for anyone to escape.