You Are Not Alone | #WAKEUPWEDNESDAYS

Hey guys,

How are you all? I hope you're all having a much better day than I am. Are you simply waiting for the week to end? Or are enjoying every moment of it? Either way, I hope that you are all feeling great.

So let's address the big elephant in the room. Today's post is going to be about bullying - I know that this is a very sensitive topic so I am going to attempt to address it in a very respectful way. This post was inspired by a collection of pictures I came across on Facebook; these pictures will be featured in this post for you all to see as I feel that they have a very strong message.

I want to make one thing very clear. Here it is: it is NEVER ok to bully someone - regardless of the situation and your reasons for wanting to do so.

In my opinion, bullies are often people that have been bullied before or people that have been excluded by others and want to make themselves appear to be a threat or stronger/braver/cooler than the rest. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

When I was roughly 9/10 years old, I used to be a bully. I remember being told one day that the way I had treated some girl the day before made her not want to come to school. I can't exactly remember how I was feeling but looking back at it, it sucks to know that something I did ruined somebody's day and made them feel bad about themselves. Now that we're older, the girl and I are able to laugh about the situation - not because I think it's ok but because the girl is completely different to what she was back when I was a bully. If anything, she's the one to be afraid of - she's not a bully but she can be very intimidating.

Ironically, when I was around 13 years old, I would get bullied about my skin tone by a guy that was a similar skin tone (or darker). Personally, I think that he did it to make him seem cool or to make him feel better about himself as he would only ever do it when there were people around. It was if he was trying to put a show on for his friends by hurting my feelings.

However, that's not the case for everybody. There are situations where constant bullying or even a single encounter with bullying can cause someone to fall into depression or become suicidal.

According to stopbullying.gov "Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience: Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy"

Stopbullying.gov also states that despite the media linking bullying with suicide, the majority of youths do not have suicidal thoughts. However there is an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour for kids that are bullied. These thoughts/behaviours are usually due to a combination of events that gradually build up over a period of time.

So I've talked about my experiences with bullying and the consequences of it but I haven't exactly told you how to deal with or respond to it.

You can respond to bullying by:

- stopping it on the spot

- being more than a bystander

- telling an adult/friend

- finding out what happened and

- supporting the people involved

If you are getting bullied (or know somebody that is), it is important that you know that you are not alone - you can get help from these organisations;

Bullying UK - 0808 800 2222

National Bullying Helpline - 0845 2022 2055787

Childline - 0800 1111

NSPCC - 0808 800 5000 or help@nspcc.org.uk

There are many more organisations out there that aim to stop bullying so I suggest that you do check them out just so that you're aware because you never know when you might need to help someone (or yourself) out.