The persistent and pervasive impact of bullying in childhood and adolescence
I feel quite shocked reading the other replies to see that so many people seem to believe the only way to resolve violence is to respond with violence.<p>Perhaps I wasn&#x27;t bullied as physically or severely as people here, but I had a few people that picked on me a lot in high school. One who ended up dating the girl I was in love with and whom I introduced to my friend group. He rubbed it in my face for almost four years that he was dating her and I wasn&#x27;t. It wasn&#x27;t until a few years ago, when I saw him at a friend&#x27;s bachelor party and he got so drunk he got thrown out of the casino, that I started to reflect on how his life may have actually have been as a kid. His dad seemed to bully him like crazy, to have ridiculous demands on him and thus he would rebel. He didn&#x27;t seem to have a lot of close friends and didn&#x27;t seem to have a lot of confidence in his physical appearance. I don&#x27;t know. What I did realize is that he probably struggled a lot as a kid. Same with another kid that would bully me. And another.<p>I just strongly reject the idea that the <i>only</i> way to resolve violence is to respond with violence—I don&#x27;t know if I even believe it is a very effective medium- to long-term solution at all.<p>I think what works better is to stand up for ourselves while also trying to stand up for them. To humanize ourselves and to humanize them if we can. To say how we&#x27;re feeling, to say how we imagine they might be feeling. Physical violence may cause them to feel fear, but at what point do we then become the bully trying to instill fear in them?