How Does Bullying Lead To PTSD?

[Claire]

My question is, How does bullying lead to PTSD? When you look at the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis does it come under physical assualt?

 

[TLight]

I know my bullying was from my father, an extremely large powerful cop who intimidated and scared his children in order to control them. I was very small and it continued throughout my childhood, escalating into physical violence.

This type of bullying obviously can lead to PTSD. Bullying from other school age children without a proper support system can probably lead to similiar effects, I would think. With no where to turn to try to handle the repeated harassment......I would think a child's mind would certainly be affected from the repeated fear.

Bully's are all cowards and personally, I think they ought to be taught one hellacious lesson. If I had my druthers........I'd take 'em all out permanently myself and with my hands........hummmm...think I have a bit of anger left?

 

[tardis]

In my case, bullying involved physical and sexual assault. I was beaten to the point of unconsciousness on more than one occasion. Also anally raped with a broom handle and other objects. This in addition to being taunted and harrassed near daily for 10+ years.

 

[Irton Pike]

I equate bullying to imprisonment to a certain degree. Bullys are basically the sort of people who batter wives. They are control freaks and they form abusive relationships which have very lopsided balance of power. They are usually pretty insecure people and to a certain extent are to be pittied because they are incapable of normal relationships.

They take away the ability of the target to fucntion as a normal human being by threats canjoling and intimidation. In this way they are like prison camp guards who you have to be nice to to get an easy life and hope they don't beat on you more.

In my case I found that bullying exacerbated massively my symptoms. I was in car crash 12 years ago and managed to function by doing loads of work and exercise. My management started piling me up with increrasing amounts of work until i was doing two peoples jobs. The stopped running as i didn't have time for it and my symptoms returned. Mainly hypervigillance, but i developed IBS and started getting investigated for bowel cancer. Foolishly, I told my line management who immediately strated coming in unannounced everyday to set unreasonable tasks then berate me for failing to meet them. The meetings would be constructed to catch me as i was leaving work to go for lunch. After three months of that the meetings were twice a day and I was in such a mess I couldn't do anything fo myself at work. I was having knightmares about the car crash every night and i evetuallly broke under the pressure. Eventually, the same person started shoving me about in the full knowledge of my condition. Bullying can take many forms but it basically comes down to highly manipulative insidious scum making people do what they want them to do by threats. in my case my job anmd hence my livelihood was threatened on a weekly basis.

I am mentally ill. But frankly, I would rather be me for all my failings than the immoral evil b****ds that bully others.

 

[goingonhope]

Bullies are not what they use to be! A simple school yard bully who teases and torments another almost daily.

Some bullies threaten to stab, cut one up into little pieces if you don't give them what they want, or perhaps even skin your good friend alive. A bully can be your own father who gets his rocks off threatening the lives of little children and overpowering them. Or, they can be some mentally deranged soul that is so pathologically insecure, cunning and manipulative as to step into your family as a complete stranger and pretend to be oh' so nice so as to gain opportune timing as to divide and conquer and shred cherished relations and home, through acts of deceit, regular intimidation, threats upon ones life and integrity and assaultiveness. All while restricting and imposing unreasonable and entirely irrational controls that have one now wondering up from down from there on out, and/or whether known reality is indeed reality anymore.

I don't know maybe it's my Ptsd thinking or the result of just plain life experiences and now openmindedness, but when I think of a bully I'm not limited in definition and exclusively defining such and/or presuming small, I'm always open to the possibility of larger, relentless, cruel, calculated, and without a conscious, even gang mentality bullies.

 

[anthony]

There is an excellent piece on bullying upon the wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying

It means many things, has a very wide scope. I have told some people who have discussed bullying with me to get a life, in that they divulged they have just been picked on once or twice, and felt they had PTSD as a result. Garbage.

I have then spoke with those who actually do suit the criteria for PTSD from bullying, as Dean mentioned above, it often encompasses physical assault, being beyond verbal. Even verbal assault over a prolonged period can do it... but not over a short period of time, ie. a month or two with a nasty individual. Physical abuse usually entails those who have PTSD from bullying; being people who love to intimidate others with fear and physical violence, not just verbal. I have only known one case of actual PTSD where the person truly had PTSD, not just anxiety, from where they where verbally abused over a decade or more... their self esteem was shot to shit and they formed PTSD without any physical abuse at all.

You could really apply in the majority of bullying cases, it is assault and rape that gives them PTSD... but the factors where they where bullied by these people over a period of time, which often can lead to complex PTSD.

 

[Claire]

Thanks for everyones replies to this. It explains it for me. I've never totally understood how 'bullying' could lead to PTSD but I do now. I think what you describe is more like assualt and mental torture in my book. Bullying makes me think of less serious situations. I understand now its all down to the degree.

 

[ice man]

Looking at this issue from three angles,having experienced

1.having had a bully of a father ( emotional abuse over a long period )
2.victim of a serious assault
3.dealing with victims that have suffered both

i would have to say Anthony was saying makes a lot of sense .I have known many people and children that have been bullied that usually come out of it with some mental scarring but not with the effects of PTSD.
From my own experience,the serious assault i suffered i think was the begining of my condition not the bullying from my father,however i am still to this day not sure how much of a connection there is between the both to why i am who i am today.

 

[tardis]

This is partly why I get frustrated and will not talk about being bullied. I will say I was beaten, occasionally that I was sexually assaulted. But often using the word bully causes people to view my experiences as not serious. Really glad you are seeing the seriousness of it more now Claire. Thanks for asking this question.

 

[anthony]

Ice Man, the problem with PTSD is that when it develops, suddenly every little issue that has negative stigma attached to it within your life becomes an issue. PTSD takes the smallest negative stigma and exacerbates it beyond reproach, beyond what is reasonable to most. That is what PTSD does, and it does it very well. This is why once PTSD has formed, not only do you have to look into your trauma and heal that, you must then look into just about every negative issue within your life that is causing you negative emotion and deal with it, to find some resolution or acceptance so PTSD no longer has all these little negative emotions to multiply and disrupt your life by producing symptoms upon you.

Often the connection becomes PTSD itself towards all smaller traumatic events within your life. The connection just never existed before PTSD... where PTSD feeds on all negative emotion in your life, past, present and even future.

 

[Irton Pike]

anthony is not wrong.