The Student Room Group

Being bullied as a child can lead to mental health issues as an adult

Bullying can have a massive impact on your mental health, both now and in the future.

In fact, recent research has shown that if you’re bullied as a child or teenager, you might be twice as likely to use mental health services as an adult. It doesn't matter if you're being bullied at school, at home or online, bullying can mess with your head.

But you're not alone, and you deserve support.

BullyingUK (part of Family Lives) talks about the different ways bullying can effect people....

You might be feeling:

Anxious and worried all the time

Depressed, sad, low and tearful

That you’re not worth anything, or that nobody likes you

Sick more often, or have stomach pains

Angry and stressed

Helpless and hopeless, like things will never get better

Like hurting yourself, or someone else. If you’re having thoughts like this, it’s important to get help straightaway



You might also:

Find it hard to concentrate at school

Not want to be around your friends and family as much as you used to

Not enjoy things you used to enjoy

Have trouble eating, or eat too much for you

Throw up after eating

Have trouble sleeping, or sleep too much

Drink a lot of alcohol, or use drugs

Have flashbacks and nightmares


Getting support offline might be the best way to get help if you're struggling to cope. But if you're not ready to talk to someone face to face, there are lots of other places you can turn to:

BullyingUK helpline (0808 800 2222) can talk you through what’s happening to you and help you explore what to do next.

Online support can be helpful when we want to be totally anonymous or don’t like using the phone. Try talking to people in our Mental Health Forum.

Childline also have online, 1-1 counselling that you can access 24 hours a day.

Cheers for posting though this is not really surprising. Bumping so if anyone sees it who is being picked on they can speak to somebody or get help.
Yep, it completely messed up my head, that's for sure!
lol so many things completely messed up my head but being constantly bullied in lower and middle school definitely is a major cause of my mental health issues today...

I have to admit I have been victim of bullying everyday at school. Both by students and teachers but had no chance but to wait. I'm obviously thankful this does not happen anymore although I now have other problems (which tbh are prolly not as bad but who knows).

Honestly if you want to read all of this I should warn you this might cause sadness.

I'm 99% sure these are causing me not do as well in exams as expected by teachers/lecturers. The feeling of pressure evidently causes me to panic but the biggest evidence is that I start to remember my bad memories in childhood.

I was constantly told by teachers that I won't be able to live normally because my thinking is so altered from the "normal" way. I was insulted daily and even was physically attacked (I have stitches in my mouth if you want evidence lol because my lip was pretty much wrecked once). Best part is that I was being called the bully and had to go on detention while the real bullies had no punishment, leading to everyone bullying me.

What happened is that one day I lost my patience and beat up the bullies the next time they tried to harm me (which is honestly self-defense). The worst I caused is a nose-bleed to one of them which got me expelled. But it was worth it since I've shown them I am stronger than they are. In the next schools I attended they attempted bullying me but I showed them a piece of my mind (which works every time).

If I'm bullied now it wouldn't affect me so much but as a child well RIP.

Moreover, I've become to not trust anyone with anything (even my parents, who treated me really well and did their best to help me with bullying). I don't like being with people and would rather be in my room all day (except when I can go walk in the nature, then that too :smile:). I don't even want a relationship and lost all interest i that kind of stuff.

I was a really nice person as a child but now I come up to be even mean, it's really not intentional and really want to fix this.

Alas, I am broken forever so if there is something I could do to prevent others becoming like me it'd be great (and I did manage to do just that).
Yeah that's starkingly obvious :redface:
if bullying and social media can hurt mh

then what about hardcore pornography, binge watching netflix, video games, pointless internet browsing, di/cking about on smartphones for hours, eating junk food. never doing anything productive at all outside school, or excerising, or eating clean, or socialising, etc ppl do all or some of that chit yet still go to bed at night thinking what the hell is wrong with me. idk why society just doesnt wake up and think u know what justonbibero over there is right i shouldnt reaching for the drugs and going to all these doctors its cos last night i whacked off to porn 3 times and watched 6 espisodes of some netflix bs
(edited 5 years ago)
Thank you for creating the awareness! Be kind to one another. :smile:
More awareness needs to be raised regarding this. Thank you for this post! :smile:
This is news?
Reply 9
Original post by Spirithorse
Bullying can have a massive impact on your mental health, both now and in the future.

In fact, recent research has shown that if you’re bullied as a child or teenager, you might be twice as likely to use mental health services as an adult. It doesn't matter if you're being bullied at school, at home or online, bullying can mess with your head.

But you're not alone, and you deserve support.

BullyingUK (part of Family Lives) talks about the different ways bullying can effect people....

You might be feeling:

Anxious and worried all the time

Depressed, sad, low and tearful

That you’re not worth anything, or that nobody likes you

Sick more often, or have stomach pains

Angry and stressed

Helpless and hopeless, like things will never get better

Like hurting yourself, or someone else. If you’re having thoughts like this, it’s important to get help straightaway



You might also:

Find it hard to concentrate at school

Not want to be around your friends and family as much as you used to

Not enjoy things you used to enjoy

Have trouble eating, or eat too much for you

Throw up after eating

Have trouble sleeping, or sleep too much

Drink a lot of alcohol, or use drugs

Have flashbacks and nightmares


Getting support offline might be the best way to get help if you're struggling to cope. But if you're not ready to talk to someone face to face, there are lots of other places you can turn to:

BullyingUK helpline (0808 800 2222) can talk you through what’s happening to you and help you explore what to do next.

Online support can be helpful when we want to be totally anonymous or don’t like using the phone. Try talking to people in our Mental Health Forum.

Childline also have online, 1-1 counselling that you can access 24 hours a day.


And the prize for outstanding new observation of the year goes to...
Stating the bleeding obvious.

Anyhow, I was bullied at bit at school years ago. Don’t think it’s impacted my mental health, maybe my personality though...
Reply 11
Who knew(?)
I created a YouTube channel in secondary school and was bullied for it for a long time, looking back on it it was probably cringy to watch but I had parody accounts set up named after me and posting pictures of me that were photoshopped. It really upset me and I wish I'd done something about it sooner

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