By Emily Hanlon
In this post, I wanted to discuss bullying, and the link between bullying and anxiety. The national definition used in Australia, defines bullying as:
“An ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.”
Many of the young children and adolescents I have worked in throughout my clinical experience, have been victims of bullying. One thing that I honestly cannot stand, is school denial of bullying problems. One line all schools like to use is ‘oh no, our school does not have a bullying problem!!’ This statement in itself, is quite simply, false. Current Australian research (and by current, I am referring to research conducted in 2018), suggests that one in every four students has experienced some level of overt bullying, and one in five students has been the victim of online (cyber) bullying.
Please do me a favour, and re read those statistics. And now go back and read them again. Can you believe it? This research indicates that 25% of Australian students have been victims of bullying. To put that in perspective, that is an estimated 910,000 Australian children. Even more horrifying, is that there are roughly 45 million incidents of bullying reported each year, instigated by 543,000 perpetrators. Now, before you read on, I want you to realise something. These statistics do not even account for the bullying incidents that go UNREPORTED! It is mind baffling to me that schools can see these statistics and still say, with confidence, that none of their students could possibly be contributing to this nation-wide bullying phenomenon!
20+ years ago, if a child was being bullied, they would at least have some relief from the situation when they went home of an afternoon. However, in today’s society, with the use of technology rising, children rarely get a ‘break’ from bullying incidents. Bullying now happens in person or online via digital platforms/devices. Bullying can be either overt (meaning obvious or ‘out in the open’), or covert (meaning hidden/subtle). Covert bullying is typically non-physical and unfortunately, often goes unnoticed and unacknowledged by adults. Examples of covert bullying include spreading rumours, encouraging children to exclude another child, or saying negative things via social media outlets. That is, covert bullying behaviour mostly inflicts harm by damaging the social reputation of a child, interfering with peer relationships, and consequently, damaging their self-esteem.
Both overt and covert bullying have the potential to cause significant long-term harm to victims. However, because covert bullying often goes unnoticed, it can unfortunately have more significant impacts on the mental-health of the child victim, as it often takes longer for adult intervention to occur.
Bullying can become a traumatic experience for children and adolescents. The associated pain and distress that victims experience, can impact on every aspect of their lives. This may result in feelings of loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and vulnerability. More importantly, the consequences of bullying longer long after a bully has stopped/moved onto another victim. One of the most common long-term effects of bullying, as reported by Australian children and teens in 2018, was the development of anxiety disorders.
The top four anxiety disorders that victims of bullying reported experiencing were:
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): children with PTSD may experience flashbacks of bullying incidents, have nightmares about bullying, startle easily, and withdraw from others. PTSD often occurs when bullying has been overt and physically aggressive.
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD): it is not uncommon for victims of bullying to worry frequently, and expect ‘bad’ things to happen. After all, bad things were happening to them during the bullying incident(s). Repeated exposure to stress (bullying) eventually filters into other areas of life, and these children tend to develop worries about aspects of their lives unrelated to the bullying incident.
Panic Disorder and Panic Attacks: Panic attacks can occur when children relive their bullying experiences. Panic disorder is the worry that panic attacks are going to occur. Left untreated, children with panic attacks/panic disorder eventually withdraw from things they once enjoyed for fear of another episode.
Social Anxiety Disorder: it is not surprising that victims of bullying develop social anxiety disorder, especially if they have been publicly humiliated on several occasions. In this case, their belief is that the embarrassment they experienced as a result of bullying, is going to happen over and over again in the future.
Signs that a child might be a victim of bullying include:
An unexpected change in grades, disinterest in academic tasks
School avoidance or reluctance, and/or attempts to fake illness
Complaints of headaches and stomach aches
Changes in eating habits (either binge eating or a significant reduction in intake)
Signs of depression in children, which include: low self-esteem, negative self-talk, irritability, aggression towards siblings, disinterest in hobbies
Sleep disturbances or nightmares
Loss of belongings
Unexplained injuries or bruises
Avoidance of social situations (i.e., birthday parties)