Addiction Bullying

Bullying For Addiction 

Call Now To Get On The Road To Recovery.

*As required by law, all communications with Resurgence Behavioral Health are HIPAA Compliant and 100% Confidential

Bullying is described as any form of physical, verbal, and psychological attacks.

It can also include intimidation against a person who cannot defend themselves.

The effects of bullying can not only hurt people at the moment but can inflict lifelong permanent issues.

What is interesting about the relationship between addiction and bullying is huge.

Both bullying and addiction are serious problems that occur because of influence, and their development can be severe.

Most of the time, bullying causes mental and emotional trauma.

In some cases, this can even lead to substance abuse and addiction.

What is Involved With Bullying?

Bullying often includes cycles of abuse or patterns.

There is always a bully who will be targeting the victim.

This abuse can be physical, verbal, mental, or emotional, but is typically more than one.

In recent years, bullying has achieved more attention in the media.

Bullying Suicide

Bullying-related suicides are actually quite common.

Many number of suicides have occurred due to bullying and there has been an increased awareness of its impact.

What is interesting is that bullying affects both the victims and the actual people who are doing the bullying.

There are 500,000 yearly suicide attempts and 5,300 suicides in relation to adolescent bullying, and suicide remains the second leading cause of death among American teenagers.

Anti-bullying programs in schools are thought to reduce bullying by 25% to 50%.

Bullying in The Workplace

Bullying can happen to both children and adults, and workplace bullying can impact the financial health of those involved.

Around 70% of workplace bullies are male, and 61% are bosses.

What is Adolescent Bullying?

In schools, a student is bullied every 7 minutes. There are actually 1,200,000 high school dropouts that occur each year because of bullying. It is thought that around 40% to 60% of children are bullied in all age groups. It also came to light that 75% of school shooters have either been bullies or are victims of bullies.

Types of Bullying

Bullying is exposure to violence, cruel words, exclusion, manipulation, and other harmful behaviors. There are many different forms of bullying that occur. Some of the types of bullying include:

Physical

• Hitting
• Kicking
• Punching
• Slapping
• Pinching
• Spitting
• Pushing
• Vandalizing property

Verbal

• Insulting
• Mean name-calling
• Harsh teasing
• Mocking
• Racist, sexist, or homophobic comments
• Intimidating or threatening remarks

Social

• Ganging up on one person
• Excluding from social events
• Starting rumors
• Gossiping
• Damaging reputation without reason
• Humiliation

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying occurs online and is a larger problem than many people think. Acts of cyberbullying include:

• Hacking accounts
• Humiliating others through abusive, unkind, and hurtful text messages
• Mean online comments, posts, gossip, or online rumors
• Spamming someone’s online accounts
• Stalking social media accounts

Relational Aggression

• Sneaky, undermining, or passive-aggressive comments
• Social manipulation
• Breaking confidences
• Emotional bullying

Sexual

• Calling harsh names relaxed to sexuality
• Inappropriate touching
• Slut-shaming
• Unsolicited sexual text messages
• Crude comments
• Negative comments about someone’s sexual orientation
• Comments on someone’s sexual attractiveness
• Sharing sexual pictures or rumors
• Using blackmail to gain sexual power
• Coercing into sexual access
• Unwanted touching

Why is Bullying Dangerous?

All of these types of bullying can lead to deep-seated trauma and even into other forms of abusive behavior. Victims of bullies often become bullies in an attempt to protect themselves as well. This continues the cycle of abuse and can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms. Many bullies or people who are bullied eventually drop out of school, quit work, or become addicted to substances.

Effects of Bullying for Bully Victims

When groups of children were surveyed, it was found that those who are perceived as different were more likely to be bulled. This might include those who are of a different race than the majority, heavier or lighter in weight, those that dressed differently or were new in school. It might also include those who did not have a large number of friends.

Children or teens who have bullied report lower grades in school, as well as health complaints, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. There were many reported incidents of substance abuse in children who were bullied. This was reported due to needing an escape.

Effects of Bullying For Bullies

Bullies typically will bully as a result of issues at home. This might include parental abuse, neglect, or harm. Because of this, bullies will then hurt others. For many years this was apparent in schools, but now bullies have taken to doing so from their home.

Even though children who bully others may not always be victims, they are more likely to become addicted to substances. This might include drugs or alcohol. Bullies are also more likely to have an earlier onset of sexual activity, commit crimes, get into fights, and become abusive to loved ones.

Mental Health and Bullying

Bullying breaks down your self-esteem. It can even distort your self-image and damage your mental status. When you are being bullied you may be living in a mentally unstable and stressful environment.

Feelings of anxiety and stress can not only cause a negative mental health for the victim but also create life long disorders. This is because bullying causes insecurity, low self-esteem, anger, anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts.

Even further, can go to low self-worth, hopelessness, and isolation. This eventually may lead to a drinking problem or substance abuse disorder. Around 30% to 40% of people with an alcohol use disorder also suffer from depression. Overall, trying to deal with stress, anxiety, or other emotions, will lead many to look for methods to self-medicate.

What is a Dual Diagnosis??

Dual diagnosis occurs when you are suffering from a substance use disorder along with a mental health disorder. If you have been bullied then you most likely are dealing with a mental health disorder. Couple that with addiction, and you have a more serious diagnosis. It is essential to treat both your substance abuse disorder as well as your mental health problem. If you do not, then you run the risk of not being able to achieve long-term sobriety.

Are You Self-Medicating?

Substance abuse and bullying go hand in hand because substances are often used to self-medicate the symptoms of bullying. Not only can bullying create lifelong distressing symptoms, but you may also develop the need for medication in the first place. If you abuse drugs as a child, then you are more likely to have a dependency later in life.

If you know a child, or an adult, who suffers from bullying it is important to check up on them. Are they self-medicating? Self-medication involves using drugs to soothe the symptoms of a mental health disorder. Although you may think that this can work, it is extremely dangerous and provides a high risk of addiction. Only a doctor should prescribe you medication and, even in that case, you can still become addicted.

Get Help Today

Contact Resurgence Behavioral Health at the first signs of any self-medication from a bullying victim.

We can help to get you into treatment with our free insurance verification for treatment, and then into a screening.

Not only do we have cutting-edge medication, but we also provide needed counseling to get to the root of the problem.

Contact us today.