Bullying

Verbal bullying is when someone bullies you by saying mean, hurtful things to you. They might say unkind things about the way you look, or make fun of your family or friends, or spread nasty lies and gossip about you.

When people tell us things about ourselves enough times, we start to believe it. Bullies want to make you feel bad about yourself; sometimes it’s because they feel bad about themselves and think that by making you look or feel worse that they will look or feel better, but it doesn’t really work that way. Whatever bullies say to you, as much as it may hurt, it’s best to try to remember that they are probably saying mean things to get a reaction and that what they are saying probably not true.

Sometimes bullying like this can actually be a type of emotional abuse, which can be really very hard to deal with (not that bullying itself isn’t difficult to deal with anyway!). So what can you do? You could try talking to a trusted adult like a teacher or guardian about it, or if you still don’t feel like you are getting the support you need then there are organisations you can reach out to who will talk to you about what is happening and try to help you to deal with what is happening.