No Bully

Survivors of Bullying

Bullying, both at school and between siblings, is increasingly understood as a form of trauma. Numerous research studies have demonstrated that its consequences upon school-age children are significant. But what happens to these survivors of bullying once they leave school?

It had been assumed until recently that school bullying leaves no significant long-term effects. And certainly many survivors of bullying grow into adulthood apparently unaffected. However, our experience at No Bully is that there is a significant number of women and men who survived a childhood of bullying but have suffered effects for many decades since.

In 2001 and 2002 Nicholas Carlisle, Director of No Bully®, and Eric Rofes, PhD, conducted a small pilot study to explore this question. All but one of the participants said that they had been severely bullied at school, i.e. at least once a week for at least a year. Many of the subjects were bullied while at boarding school. They almost universally attributed to their childhood bullying difficulties in relationships, particularly in making friendships, belonging to groups, dealing with authority figures, facing conflict and in relating to their significant others. They also reported these long-term effects: shame, entrenched beliefs that they are unlikable, anxiety (often most intensely in social situations), difficulties with anger, thoughts of revenge, and depression. The full findings of this research study, together with commentary by Nicholas Carlisle and Eric Rofes, are published in the Journal of Traumatology 2007; 13: 16-26. You can obtain a copy of this article from Sage Journals online by clicking on the following link: http://tmt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/1/16

It is fully possible to recover from the effects of school bullying. No Bully runs workshops for survivors, as a first step to freedom from their school past. Shame often prevents survivors from talking about being targeted while at school. Our hope in bringing survivors together is that they discover that they have understandable responses to what is an unacknowledged trauma. And that they gain strength in coming together and the tools to move on. It is common for survivors of bullying to feel apprehensive about coming to a workshop with others. Past participants report great relief at having done so.

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No Bully contact information

 

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info@nobully.com

© 2011 No Bully.