Bullying

By Jermaine Sylvester

So many people have witnessed or been a victim of bullying, young as old, all over the world.
Bullying is a form of aggressive behaviour manifested by the use of force to affect others. Bullying could be mental and emotional as well as physical. Many adults today that were bullied would tell you how much it still hurts them and how difficult it was to overcome. From being insecure about themselves and having very low self esteem, due to being left scared since their childhood of suffering in silence, being frightened to tell anyone about their situation.
Celebrity Jodie Marsh spoke previously about her difficulty when she was bullied during her time at secondary school. She was on ITV show, This Morning speaking about it and the project she's doing to help other victims. By doing this, she broke down in tears when she recalled she was nearly driven to suicide by the constant teasing at her school.
Jodie, who admitted she was 'terrified' when girls began kicking footballs at her head. This was all shown on her Channel 5 documentary, Bullied: My Secret Past. She said: “My bullying at school changed my life. I only do what I do now because of being bullied. I decided to become a model to prove to my bullies that I wasn't ugly.”
“After I broke my nose in a hockey accident, they started picking on my nose and then I got called ugly and big nose, dodgy nose and all sorts of things right the way through secondary school. By the end of my time at secondary school I didn't have a single friend there. I was a complete loner at school. I used to go and hide in the library at lunchtimes.”
Now that’s coming from somebody who is now no longer a loner, but somebody, girls or anybody, could look up to and inspire to be. She has obviously been through a lot in her childhood. Some children never make it to their adulthood and take their own lives because they can’t take it any longer. It really saddens me that these things happen without you knowing until it comes out in the light. And then the damage has already been done.
Jodie Marsh is now a celebrity model. And is one maybe because it's revenge to her bullies and to prove them wrong. This shows how much she is still affected by her bullies, even as an adult. She was in tears on This Morning like it just happened yesterday; the memories are clearly still fresh in her mind.
When Phillip Schofield asked her if she had ever thought about taking her own life, Jodie struggled to compose herself before answering, breaking down in tears, “I contemplated suicide loads of times. I wanted to be a vet and I would have gone off to university and done that and that was my plan in life. And I was 15 years old when I wrote in my diary that I was going to be a model and prove these bullies wrong - I'd made my mind up at 15.” Jodie tried putting on a brave face, smiling through: She appeared in good spirits as she arrived at the ITV studios for her interview. Jodie added that despite her tears, she is feeling much happier about things. “I still get abuse now on my own social networking sites, but I'm actually the happiest I have ever been in life.” Jodie, 33, also revealed about making the documentary, “I didn't hesitate at all. I've wanted to make this show for 10 years because it's so important.
I think more programmes should be shown on this topic to wake people up, parents that their own child could be going through the same thing and let them know they're other people out there in the same situation, so they're not alone.”
Bullying behaviour may include name-calling, written abuse or verbal, social networking sites, physical abuse. Bullies may behave this way to be perceived as popular or tough or to get attention. They may bully out of jealousy or be acting out because they themselves are bullied.
U.S. National Center for Education Statistics suggests that bullying can be classified into two categories: Direct bullying, and indirect bullying (which is also known as social aggression.