Bullycide Articles

Bullycide and Depression - the latter is the beginning - the former is the consequence

By Mandy-Jane Clarke

Bullycide is a direct result of depression. The inability to thwart off being bullied by one’s peers is what produces the depression. When all else fails and life seems hopeless, bullycide is, for those who often see no way out, their final solution.

Bullying is now a commonplace occurrence in schools. While it begins in a subtle manner, most bullies begin their torment after choosing someone who fits within their scope of someone who cannot fend for themselves.

These bullies often steal from their victims, make fun of them in front of peers, steal from them, threaten them, and wait for them on their way home from school or harass them on the bus. While there are some schools that have procedures in place to deal with this pandemic, there are not enough counselors and professionals to handle large numbers of bullies within one school. Moreover, when the children leave the school’s perimeter, school officials can do nothing to assist someone who is about to be attacked by a bully.

Bullycide and depression are by-products of school officials, parents, and other professional’s inability to recognize and immediately deal with a situation as it is happening. Friends of bullies will never snitch on them; therefore, the kid who is the victim is helpless. He or she fears reprisals if seen talking to a school counselor or administrator.

Where can the victim of this violence turn? In most cases, the victim’s parents may both work which means leaves the child to walk home alone or take the school bus. The child who is victimized may be left messages on his or her computer or in the backpack. He or she could be accosted on the way to school. The bully may steal the child’s jacket on a cold winter’s day, or inflict harm on the victim by hitting and punching them in the schoolyard or during lunchtime. Since most schools lack sufficient number of security guards, most victims are accosted in the bathrooms or the stairwells.

While the kid who is being bullied tries to focus on schoolwork, it becomes an impossible task. He or she doesn’t sleep or eat, remains alone in his or her room, and barely utters a word. Remember, most bullies threaten their victims so that if the child being bullied even thinks about telling someone, he or she will pay the price.

Isolated and lonely, the child turns inward. He or she will avoid family functions, seem edgy and unresponsive, and hardly crack a smile. The world of the child being bullied becomes smaller and smaller, until there is nothing left except a blank stare and thoughts which should never enter a child’s mind.

As the depression mounts, those things which once brought so much joy now bring pain. The pain is so deep; the child cannot even think straight any longer. Thoughts of suicide begin to emerge. Desperation sinks in and the child may cut school and just wander the streets. If both parents work, the child may search for pills or look up suicide on the internet to get ideas on how to carry it out.

Finally, the victim decides there is no way out; no one to turn to, and commits bullycide; self-inflicted suicide caused by the unending and inescapable torment of being bullied.

If you have a child who is acting out of the norm, who comes home from school disheveled or appears to be frightened, who doesn’t eat or sleep and mopes around in a lethargic haze; it’s time to intervene. Find out of he or she is being bullied and if so, take every action necessary to see to it that it never happens again. If you have to transfer your child out of the current school, do so. If your child needs counseling to improve his or her self-confidence and build self-esteem, make the call.

Bullycide and depression; the latter is the beginning - the former is the consequence.

This article is courtesy of http://www.Stop-Bullies.com Stop-Bullies.com is a resource site covering specific areas of Bullying including Bullycide and Depression.