Despite widespread institutional efforts, including initiatives on both the federal and local levels, bullying continues to plague schools and even adult environments all over the country. The unfortunate reality is that most bullies aren’t mature enough to empathize with their targets and thus often subject them to traumatic and potentially life-altering harassment. While bullies may be able to walk away and later disregard their past behavior as just them being kids many victims often develop a lifetime of emotional baggage that follows them into their adulthood, including mental illness, low self-esteem and even problems with drugs and alcohol.

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Bench Notice

Although this article may be trying to enlist the services of Behavioral Health of Palm Beach to help with the problem of addiction and bullying, it makes some great points that should be considered as a resource  Often adults don’t recognize that the PTSD that they are suffering from is an indication of the past imprint related to bullying. As adults they may be addicted or have job related issues or even relationship or marital problems. As adults they are still working to try and discover themselves and where their moral compass is pointing.

As a school or even as a parent we need to recognize the clinical problems associated with bullying at an early age and the long term effects it can have on a person’s future behavior. Depression, anxiety, and social problems are all signs that their is something kicking around in a person’s thought process that is causing them to draw conclusions (both true and false) about who they are as individuals and how they view themselves in the world in which they live.

Schools need to make the connection between the clinical issues that a student is suffering from, anxiety etc, and the addiction problems that occurs as a result. Treating the addiction as schools do will help, but attacking the root problem is they key. If bullying is occurring in the school a futuristic approach needs to be taken in order to gain a view of the problems that lie ahead for the student. An approach needs to be taken that combines strengthening the victims of bullying, and making a determination if the behavior is conduct related (learned behavior) or clinically related (trauma influenced).