Tags
Abuse, Blindness, Bullying, Mental health, Mental illness, School, Trauma
So its no secret that as a teen we were severely bullied in school. When we started secondary school we were going to school in the bording school in dublin. Our first year there, a group of girls started bullying us. The group was led by a very nasty girl who would stop at nothing whenit came to the things she would do to hurt us. It wasnt just name calling. It was way more than that. The bullying took many forms, including injuring us, writing nasty letters and posting them to us, etc. It was horrific. That went on for a year, until finally we were able to tell our class teacher about it and she dealt with it and the bullies got into a lot of trouble. So we thought the bullying was over, and we’d gotten through it. But some years later, when we transfered back home to go to regular school, we were bullied once again. This time we were the only blind person in a school full of sighted people. And oh my god were the kids in our class so cruel. Some examples of what they did to us included knocking us over while we were going up the stairs and breaking our arm, pushing us as we came out of school and sending our backpack flying so that it emptied out all over the yard, putting super glue on our chair, need I say more? It was horrendous and it made us feel so depressed. We got worse and worse as the bullying progressed. We got to a point where we were dreading school and going in each day. Then the suicidality hit hard. We began to think we’d be better off if we were to end our life. So one day when we got home from school we overdosed on a bottle of prozac. Luckily we were found and hospitalised and it was only then that everything came to light and the school dealt with the bullying. Needless to say though it has had such a detromental effect on our mental health. The fact that we were bullied has severely emotionally scarred us. I dont think bullying is taken half as seriously as it should be. Schools need to do more to protect kids from bullys. Professionals need more training. Bullying does effect mental health in every way. I should know.