Effects of Mental and Verbal Bullying on Adolescents (Essay Sample)

How Does Mental & Verbal Bullying Affect the Emotional, Social, And Psychological Well-being of an Adolescent?
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How Does Mental and Verbal Bullying On Emotional, Social and Psychological Well Being of Adolescents?
The issue of verbal and mental bullying is very common across the world. People have a misguided notion that this form of bullying and abuse has the least disastrous consequences and harmful effects on the psychological, emotional, and social well-being of adolescents. This belief is wrong as reports now indicate that such form of bullying is detrimental to the adolescents’ mental health. Verbal and nonverbal bullying consists of some form of threats, offensive language, usage of swear words, harsh tone, passing nasty remarks, yelling, and screaming. Bullying can take place in almost all settings, including the school, family, sporting field, workplace, and the broader community (Aricak et al., 2008). Therefore, adolescents experience verbal and mental bullying whose effects varies, depending on the context of bullying, location, and form of bullying.
One of the major consequences of adolescent bullying is that it tends make them become withdrawn emotionally. In situations where they were already shy, quiet and self-contained, they may advance even further, to the extent where interacting with their counterparts becomes troublesome (Mash & Wolfe, 2013). Frequent exposure to humiliation, hurt, and social isolation can lead them to be withdrawn deeper into their world. Consequently, bullied adolescents may have trouble eating or sleeping and may stop enjoying the activities they once did with their peers. As a result, their general wellbeing and academic performance plummets.
Not surprisingly, both the bullied and bullying adolescents display some of the most detrimental emotional handicaps later in life. Usually, bullies have a learned behavior, which they acquired perhaps from abusive parents, caregivers, relatives, or siblings. Many a times they remain anxious and depressed well into their later lives. According to a study by Vanderbilt & Augustyn (2010), verbally and mentally bullied adolescents are at a greater risk of developing psychological disorders that could be long-lasting. Besides, bullied adolescents have elevated levels of childhood psychiatric disorders, panic disorder, agro-phobia, and generalized anxiety. Interestingly, when researchers followed bullied victims into their adulthood, they were found to be highly susceptible to suicidal acts.
Moreover, the psychological torment that bullied victims feel is real. However, because many people have undergone this sort of cruelty in the schoolyard and lived to tell the experience, peer harassment is often written off as a mild form of abuse. It is viewed as a form of abuse that victims can get over easily and leaves no obvious injuries (Copeland, Wolke, Angold & Costello, 2013). Indeed, it is easy to think that all that bullying does it to hurt feelings of adolescents. A new research wave reveals that verbal and mental bullying can damage an adolescent’s brain that is still developing and growing. Being ostracized by peers, can throw hormones into a whack, sabotage development of new neurons, and reduce brain connectivity. Therefore, verbal and mental bullying can cause severe neurological scars that closely resemble those borne by a teen that is sexually and physically molested by other people.
Undoubtedly, adolescent bullying has severe psychological, emotional, and social effects that can be described by psychology experts as adolescent...