(TooInvolved1;42506)
Jon-Marc I was bullied and abused too. I know what you - and Billy - are going through. I'm sorry...
Being abused by one's dad and rejected, unmercifully ridiculed, and bullied by one's peers leaves a lasting negative effect on a person. It's very difficult to get close to anyone without expecting them to turn on you. Making friends is not easy. You go through life with negative thoughts about your worthiness of being loved and accepted. You have been rejected so many times that you expect the rejection and fear it.Teenagers learn this behavior from their parents as their parents talk about other people. "Did you see that dress Mrs. Smith was wearing? She must have been poured into it." or "Mrs. Jones is so fat that she looks like a bowl of jello walking down the street." or "Did you hear that horrid voice on that woman who sang in church this morning? How she had the nerve to get up there and sound like that is beyond me." Christians often go home and have fried preacher for dinner, and the children hear all that and learn to criticize, judge and condemn, and take it a step further by doing it to the victim's face in front of others. Bullies love an audience since other teens cheer them on. "Yeah, that's right! Beat him, kick him, stomp him. While they might not help the bully, they're all too afraid of him to help the hapless victim. While adults usually just say these things behind your back, teens will say them to your face--unless teens have changed in the last 43 years since I graduated from high school. From what I understand they have taken their destructiveness of one's character to a new level on the Internet where they can be anonymous and reach far more people.There's a dumb commercial on TV that says something like, "If you wouldn't say it in person, why would you say it online?" Since when are teens afraid to say it to your face? I realize that I haven't been a teen in a LONG time, but have teens gotten afraid to tell other teens to their face what they think of them? They never were when I was a teen.