blackwave said:
I was bullied because I never retaliated. Moral of the story: retaliate.
Blackwave is dead on.
I got a lot of ******** in secondary school, as far as I could tell the only reason was because I was a nice guy who didn't do anything back and they assumed I was "weak" because of that. I never did anything to antagonise anyone.
Bullies are sad, miserable, despicable excuses for human beings. They usually make others feel uncomfortable in order to project their own inadequacies onto them.
The bullying I received primarily started after I befriended and offered support to someone who was a nice guy, but was getting picked on because of that. I, by association, became targeted too.
The thing is that the great majority of bullies are total wimps and cowards. The minute you stand up to them, they just don't know what to do and they fold like a pack of cards.
The scariest moment of the bullying (and perhaps my life thus far) was when it reached it's apex. The bullies had formed a gang around 15 strong, and they crowded around me and my friend and started making the usual unpleasant remarks.
One began pushing me around and started messing around with the rucksack was wearing - I turned round and shoved him as hard as I could, sending him flying. He got up immediately, ran behind his big group of friends, and whined hilariously to the ringleader: "He just
punched me!"
He sounded like a little kid. So, this ringleader says to me (again, while hiding behind his friends): "Did you punch _____?"
I said "No, but if you want me to I can."
The crowd gave up the harassment then and left like the bunch of pansies that they were. If they had decided to fight us, I'm pretty sure we would have got a heavy kicking, but the only reason they crowd like that is because they don't have the balls to fight in the first place.
The bullying stopped altogether when I hit the ringleader a few weeks later. I suffered further under one seperate idiot a year or two later, the kind of guy who would shove kids years younger than him over for no reason.
He stopped that kind of behaviour when one day I ripped his glasses off his face, threw them down the corridor, and then shoved him over. He was completely taken aback.
A member of staff saw me do it, but he was strangely deaf to the idiot bully's whining. I'm still thankful to that guy for seeing what was really going on
I've never been a violent person, but there comes a time when that's the only thing that works. The staff at the college were useless with dealing with the morons and actually indirectly encouraged the behaviour by being really soft on them.
At one point, I had to write a list of how I'd been wronged, which was then showed to the bullies so that they could "apologise"! Of course, that actually made things worse...before I started hitting people.
So I'd advise everyone who is getting lots of **** from idiots to know and do 3 things:
A: Realise that the bullies themselves are weak and pathetic, not you. The reason they pick on you is envy and/or because they themselves lack the integrity and qualities you have.
B: Don't let it get you down. Talk to someone, whether parents, a friend, or someone on an online forum.
C: If nothing is being done, give them problems back. Violence should
ALWAYS be a
last resort, but if it's getting too much to bear, sometimes it works wonders. With my case, it was literally the only route left.
I was lucky in that I was quite a burly guy. If you're not physically strong or heavily built, make up for it by being cunning. Wait until they're on their own without their cronies, then intimidate them back.
Trip them up or corner them, get right in their face and tell them that you're going to make life very unpleasant for them if they don't leave you alone.
If you're not confident in your physical prowess, do this in a public place.
The great majority of bullies will crumble instantly just from a strong verbal threat and if it comes down to a fight, there will be plenty of witnesses to break it up and back you up because the person who torments you will almost always be universally known to be a scumbag.
If you do have to hit a bully, go for the ribs and stomach. That way you will usually leave no marks, and they will not be able to cry to authority that you "bullied" them.
I know this post seems very centred on violence and unpleasant retaliation, but I felt that it really liberated me. I have never had to be violent since dealing with these types of people, but it set me free from a truly unpleasant prison that I was locked in for several years.
The majority of the time, it won't even come to blows. Simply standing up to one does the trick. If anyone is being bullied and wants my advice, please drop me a PM. It's a topic I feel very strongly on.