Speaking up about being bullied

Being bullied is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult experiences I have dealt with thus far in my life - I dealt with it for longer than I should have because I didn’t have the courage to tell somebody. I was nervous - constantly asking myself is this really bullying? What if they’re just messing around? What if I’m making a mountain out of a molehill and blowing it out of proportion?

I dealt with it for two years and by the time it was sorted, I was so badly affected that I’m still not completely over it to this day. If I’d spoken up earlier it might have not been the case. Speaking up is extremely important, and I cannot encourage you to do it enough.

It will seem scary at first - I was terrified about what the bullies would do if they found out I was telling someone. The thing is, once their name is taken down and the school are aware, the process of sorting it out will be effective immediately. Their will be very minimal time between you telling the school and the bully being called in/dealt with, and chances are they won’t get a chance to say anything.

You also might feel like your case isn’t serious enough to be considered proper bullying. I didn’t actually tell anyone until one of my teachers told me it was bullying.

The definition of bullying - according to the UK government website - is;
defined as behaviour that is:
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• intended to hurt someone either physically or emotionally
  
  
  
• often aimed at certain groups, for example because of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation
  
  
  

They can’t have picked on me for any of the latter mentioned point, because we were the same race, age and gender, and I’m not religious, nor was I out of the closet at the time. The first point however? That fit their actions perfectly, I just didn’t see it at the time. If you have even the slightest smidge of a feeling that they might be bullying you, that’s when you need to tell someone. It’s not worth risking it.

I also remember feeling really worried about the whole process - what would happen? What would they do to stop it? In my scenario, I was moved from the classes which the perpetrator and a notice was sent out to the members of staff to keep an eye on interactions between us and to not put us in the same groups or in adjacent seats. It might mean that some things in your day-to-day life change like the aforementioned, but it’ll be for the best and for a positive outcome.


But what about the actual talking part? The bit where you actually have to explain and going into detail about what’s going on? I found that writing down a list of specific incidents beforehand was very helpful, and that having a close friend sat with me also gave me extra confidence.


It will seem scary, but it’ll be worth it.
Sometimes we need to do things out of our comfort zones in order to solve problems, but it will be much better in the long run.