Contents:
Medical Video: The Effects of Bullying: What Parents Need to Know
Quoted from Compass, based on data from the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), the number of reports of children who were victims of school violence in 2015 reached 147 cases, with a total of 159 in 2014.
Like it or not, bullying is still the cultural norm in almost every school in Indonesia.
Bullying is a form of intimidation or oppression from a stronger individual or group. Bullying is different from conflicts or arguments in general, because it is seen from the level of repetition and the existence of unbalanced forces between the two parties involved. In bullying, there is an intention to cause pain and discomfort to the victim, physically and emotionally.
The scope of oppression is very broad, ranging from kicking, slapping, fighting, grabbing, hitting, yelling, shouting, cursing, insulting, humiliating, rejecting, denouncing, demeaning, blaspheming, sneering, isolating, to actions that are sexually abused.
Long-term health problems that occur in victims
As if being beaten, ridiculed, and underestimated is not enough, some bully victims pay the price of constant abuse with their health. When someone feels stressed with a constant threat of bullying, their "fight or flight" response will work. When this happens, the muscles tighten, the heart beats fast, and the body releases adrenaline and cortisol. Over time, this reaction can weaken the immune system and cause various health problems.
The following are some examples of how bullying can affect someone:
- Anxiety attack
- Depression
- Back pain
- Stomach ache
- Physical injury (broken bones, torn wounds, etc.)
- Dizzy and dizzy head
- Easy to get angry
From headaches to bedwetting
Bully children have three times the chance to experience headaches, insomnia, abdominal pain, and bedwetting, and are twice as likely to have a low appetite. Bullying can also cause long-term damage to self-confidence and self-esteem.
Furthermore, children who are both bullies and bullies have a six-fold chance of bedwetting, almost four times as much to experience poor appetite, and three times the chance of developing stomach pain.
Children and adolescents with chronic health problems such as asthma, hearing, vision, speech, or indigestion are at greater risk of bullying, and the health problems they have can be exacerbated by these actions.
Not only has the potential to suffer physical injuries from the act of persecution itself, but they may also experience long-term physical health difficulties even after the long-term suppression has stopped.
Bullying can trigger mental disorders
Research NICHD shows, although perpetrators and victims alike can show the risk of depression and anxiety, but children who are bullied (including cyberspace bullyinhg) are at a higher risk and are more likely to develop mental disorders that require intensive treatment when they grow up, when compared to children who are not victims of oppression.
There is some suspicion that bullying is a form of "toxic stress" that can have an impact on physiological responses to difficulties experienced by children, which can then manifest in physical and mental problems that continue in adulthood.
When bullied, the body reacts like it is fighting an infection
It is still unclear how the experience of bullying in childhood was translated into long-term health problems. Quoted from The Conversation, a study found that victims of bullying have their bloodstream protein levels (C-reactive protein / CRP) related to fighting infection - even to young adulthood.
High CRP levels are a general response that indicates that the body is working both against infection, reacting to injuries, or responding to chronic conditions such as arthritis.
This study shows that CRP can also increase in groups of people who experience abuse by adults in their childhood. This shows that the body reacts in a manner similar to "toxic stress" as well as infection.
Bully perpetrators are also affected
Another study looked at CRP levels in children involved in bullying as victims, perpetrators and perpetrators (participants who bullied others but also bullied), at school age and later, in adulthood.
At school age, participants who experienced some types of bullying had higher CRP levels compared to other children who were not involved in bullying at all. Then, in adulthood, researchers found a similar pattern from these findings: victims of bullying as adults have higher CRP levels than those who are not involved in bullying. Participants who were repeatedly bullied showed the highest CRP level.
Meanwhile, although bullies also showed health problems from the bullying they did, their CRP levels at adulthood were at the lowest level compared to other groups of participants. Researchers speculate that low CRP levels in former bully practitioners today can protect them against symptoms of inflammation later in life.
Now, we already know the real effects of bullying which in fact also affects other body mechanisms associated with physiological responses to stress, such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. For example, bully victims show a blunt cortisol response when tested for stress resistance in the laboratory. Cortisol is a hormone released when the body receives stress.
Pay attention to the signs as small as possible, and do not underestimate the bully
In many cases, parents and teachers ignore symptoms such as abdominal pain and headaches in children and assume that they are pretending to avoid going to school or participating in extracurricular activities. But the study emphasizes that these symptoms must be taken seriously, because they can guide children to other, more serious problems. In addition, asking children about their physical symptoms can help parents and doctors find out if they are being bullied at school, as another way for children to be more open about their experiences. Not infrequently bull victims hide their suffering in school from parents.
We need to abandon the perception that bullying is not dangerous and becomes a natural part of the child's growth process. Intimidation and ill-treatment must be considered as another form of toxic stress whose effects have great potential on one's mental and physical health. This effect has been repeatedly observed by hundreds of studies out there, both in childhood and young adults.
READ ALSO:
- When depression strikes, don't give up on darkness
- Two important moments in a child's life can cause a stroke
- Is the mood swing just a symptom of PMS or is there another disease that haunts?
