Sure, being bullied in school is a miserable experience that may lead to you threatening to shoot your attacker, violently fighting back or, ugh, taking your own life. And while we’ve already heard bullying can help lead to health issues like the loss of bone density and cardiovascular problems, now The Science tells us anti-gay bulling will mess with your head.
An adolescent brain is a busy place: It’s packed with far more neurons than will remain once the brain’s neural wiring takes the shape it will retain into adulthood. In this way, the brain of a teenager is over-prepared for an array of possibilities. A teen can take up different skills and hobbies and become proficient at them much more easily than older individuals. In a manner of speaking, the experiences of a child or a teen shape the way that the brain will crystallize.
But while positive experiences may nurture a youth, traumatic ones will damage him deeply, and probably permanently. The research is clear: Abuse a child, and the process of his brain formation is disturbed. “By revealing the internal physiological damage that bullying can do, researchers are recasting it not as merely an unfortunate rite of passage but as a serious form of childhood trauma,” the Globe article said. When [Boston-based neurological researcher Dr. Martin Teicher] subjected teens who had been bullied to brain scans, he was able to see the physical differences in their living brain tissue as compared to the neurological structures of teens who had not been mistreated by their peers.
The bullied teens, the Boston Globe reported, “had observable abnormalities in a part of the brain known as the corpus callosum–a thick bundle of fibers that connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and which is vital in visual processing, memory, and more.” Specifically, the article said, “The neurons in their corpus callosums had less myelin, a coating that speeds communication between the cells–vital in an organ like the brain where milliseconds matter.”
Which means bullying victims don’t just have a harder time navigating the social minefield that is middle and high school, but their ability to learn is also directly impacted. I had a hard enough time solving proofs in geometry as a bully-free high schooler. For my not-so-lucky peers, it was even tougher. (NB: And now we learn Berlin’s polar bear Knut died of brain problems. Ugh.)
customartist
I am so very glad that this topic has come about.
I have made the point that the ongoing bullying that I endured starting in the second grade caused me to have to focus on watching my back and defensive passage to and from, and also while in school, that I was rendered substantially unable to focus on the very reason for my being in school in the first place – Learning.
Why can’t Educators seem to grasp this very crucial concept?
greenmanTN
I remember seeing an article years ago that talked about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) being a consequence of anti-gay bullying but at the time I thought, “Oh, c’mon! Isn’t that being a little dramatic?! PTSD is something soldiers get in battle!”
In the years since I’ve accepted that it’s true. Part of my initial rejection of the idea was that I didn’t want to accept how much my own years being of bullied had affected me, that I hadn’t just “shaken it off” as something meaningless, that it wasn’t just something that happened but was over, it had a profound effect.
Like Customartist said, it definitely effected my education. It’s kind of hard to pay attention and learn when part of your brain is actively engaged in assessing the danger around you, tracking the people in your vicinity- even behind you, waiting for the next hostile act and preparing to respond. Even if it doesn’t come you’re so busy anticipating it you’re distracted from the real purpose of school, learning. I had an exaggerated startle response (a common PTSD symptom) and a tendency to lash out against perceived slights and criticism. I’d find myself getting angry, even twitching like an animal does when they’re asleep and you think they’re dreaming of chasing something or being chased, over events that HADN’T HAPPENED but I was afraid MIGHT happen. I was preparing a response in case something happened, not reacting to an actual event. A friendly professor in college asked me, “Do you know you never let anyone get within 3 feet of you?” I hadn’t noticed it but she was right; if anyone, even people I had no reason to distrust, got within that exaggerated “personal space” I backed away. If I couldn’t back away I became tense and hostile. It was like there was an alarm going off in my head and I couldn’t relax until my “space” was clear again.
Luckily I was able to work through a lot of this stuff later with a psychiatrist, but people need to realize that bullying isn’t just “hurt feelings” or “a natural part of growing up,” it has long-term effects than can take years to overcome, if you ever do.
Kev C
It’s like this: If someone does harm to you (bullying, bashing), you have to counteract the harm and do good for yourself. Do things for yourself to undo the harm. One way of doing good for yourself is giving your body the Nutrition, Rest and Exercise it needs to repair the damage. Stress (post trauma) can cause serious damage to the brain and the body if it goes unchecked. So check it and start doing good things for yourself to counteract the bad.