Types of Bullying With Examples: Emotional Bullying

• Depression: People who face emotional bullying may experience anxiety and depression. They may exhibit increased feelings of loneliness, sadness, and changes in their eating and sleeping patterns.
• Low self-esteem: The effects of emotional bullying on an individual's self-esteem can be evident even after the bullying stops. When victims are criticized for unchangeable physical traits such as skin color or height, they are likely to have insecurities about these aspects of themselves.
• Poor academic performance: Poor grades may be a result of bullying that takes place in school. Due to poor performance in school, bullied children may also be more likely to skip or miss classes or to drop out of school.
• Isolation: Victims of bullying with reduced self-confidence may seclude themselves from their friends and families. They may also face difficulty in maintaining or developing relationships.
• Suicide: There is a connection between emotional bullying and suicide. Emotional bullying can instill feelings of hopelessness and depression, which may lead to suicide ideation or action. Victims that contemplate suicide may show signs of distress, moodiness, and changes in personality.

Preventing Emotional Bullying

Various strategies can be incorporated in order to avoid emotional bullying. These include:

• Recognizing a bullying problem or the possibility of one: Recognizing bullying even when the signs are not explicit is the first step to preventing bullying. Children that participate in bullying often portray certain behaviors such as mocking, speaking sarcastically, snorting, and talking behind someone's back.
• Advocating: Advocating is another method that can prevent bullying. A unique model that can be adopted in a community is that of peer advocates. This refers to a group of people whose duty is to look out for others who might be bullied, isolated, or excluded from activities. By speaking up for them and ensuring they are included in activities and kept from harm, they can help limit emotional bullying.
• Talking to victims: It is crucial to create an environment where people feel safe talking about their experiences. In addition, talking to a victim privately instead of in front of the bully may be a more effective strategy as the victim is likely to be more forthcoming.
• Providing a healthy anti-bullying environment: Emotional bullying can be eradicated by creating unity in a community; in a school, this includes the students, staff, and teachers. Creating an environment that is intolerant of bullying will likely decrease bullying cases and promote feelings of safety.

Lesson Summary

Emotional bullying or mental bullying is the use of words to isolate, mock, or tease another individual. Emotional bullying targets an individual's emotions, confidence, and self-worth. Examples of this type of bullying include the use of derogatory names, religious exclusion, and cyberbullying. Cyberbullying occurs when the victims are subjected to false, harmful, or mean comments electronically, often on social media. Social media is a significant source of emotional bullying among individuals today.

Victims of emotional bullying portray different behaviors. The effects of bullying can include depression, lack of self-esteem, and suicide. Everyone should take action to prevent emotional bullying because the impact can affect individuals for a lifetime. Some strategies to avoid or prevent emotional bullying include identifying a bullying problem, talking to the victims, advocating, and facilitating a healthy environment that does not tolerate bullying.