Bullying in the US Essay

Bullying causes both physical and mental harm typically to its victim, and it is more harmful when repeated sometimes (Ansary, Elias, Greene & Green, 2015). Bullying as a practice has serious impacts on the victims as recent reports suggests a link suicide and bullying, but that is only on the extreme side. Most of the people involved in the act find themselves in dilemmas as they may not what to do when being intimidated, bullied or harassed by others. Some of the common symptoms of people suffering the effects of bullying may include signs of depression and isolation that may lead to the victims engaging in dangerous activities (Hemphill, Tollit, Kotevski & Florent, 2014). The paper is brief analysis of bullying effects, history of the issue, and health professionals can play a part in helping the victims of bullying and also how they can influence the formulation of laws against bullying in the United States of America.

Some of the reasons why we may experience bullying in our schools may be because of our gender, our race, our sexual orientation, or it may even be caused by our general behaviors which others may perceive to be unwanted or unpopular among other students. Such practices may include; shyness, being introverted, having low self-esteem that may make you be a target of intimidation, or even not being quite as assertive in your actions as others are (Hemphill, Tollit, Kotevski & Florent, 2014). In other occasions, one can experience bullying due to the circumstance that they are in at home which may be used as a stick for mocking them (Hemphill, Tollit, Kotevski & Florent, 2014). The wealthy people may also experience bullying regardless of the comfortable situations that they live in may be due to other students feeling envious of them thereby making them easy targets due to their vulnerability to the situation involved.

Bullying tends to have an effect on everyone regardless of whether you are the one bullying, being bullied, or witnessing the bullying taking place. A student who is being bullied may also have report cases of physical harm that was caused by the act of bullying which might be detrimental to their physical well-being if proper care is not taken. The people who bully may also develop some aggressive and questionable behaviors into their adult life. These may include the abuse of alcohol and other drugs such as marijuana, cocaine among others. There is also a chance that they may opt to drop out of school and develop truant behaviors due to the lack of focus towards the completion of their studies (Hertz, Everett, 2015).

They may also get into physical altercations with others when it is totally avoidable or even vandalizing property. Many steps have been pursued in dealing with bullying, some of which include; Organizing bullying campaigns and events which help in creating awareness about bullying, the various forms it takes, and how to know if you are experiencing it or if someone else is experiencing it in one way or another and sensitizing the people on some of the approaches they can use to deal with it when faced with a bullying situation, or in spotting it (Hertz, Everett, 2015). Some of the events and campaigns include Anti-Bullying Day, National Bullying Prevention Month amongst others. Some laws have also been enacted in the United States that treat bullying as an illegal activity, and there are severe consequences that one is to be subjected to in case found guilty of the crime, which includes fines or even jail terms (Hertz, Everett, 2015).