Hi, I’m Megan I will be talking to you about my experience of bullying. It all started when I was 13 years old, my brother would beat me, it even got to the point where I was being bullied at school.

What was your experience of bulling like?

At school bullies would talk about me behind my back. I couldn’t escape the bullying at home either as I would receive messages from the bullies, often these would be mean, personal comments. This made me feel very insecure and lead to me self-harming, I would have dark thoughts and would refuse to go into school in the mornings and just sit in the car. This affected my learning.

Did you know..

Statistically, over 14 percent of secondary school students have considered suicide and almost 7 percent have attempted it. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people. My advice here would be to talk to someone and open up, share your thoughts.

What happened when you finally opened up about your situation?

When I opened up the school made me sit in with the teacher on one to ones, rather than sitting in a whole class, they would allow me to pick the lesson that I wanted to go into. This did help, I also felt that the school would listen when opening up about how bullying was affecting me mentally. When I left school to do a pre-16 course, I felt the bullying that I experienced there had finally stopped. In terms of self-harming, my mum found out and she got in touch with CAMHS, this meant I was able to speak to a counsellor. The counsellor would talk me through my feelings and allow me to open up. Although things and feelings don’t just disappear and everyday there is a new challenge in terms of anxiety, I feel I have come a long way since my school days.

What is your advice to others going through this or something similar?

Overall my advice to anyone going through similar experiences would be

• Try your best not to take what the bullies are saying seriously
• Open up to the people that you trust around you
• Reach out to places that can help, such as CAMHS
• Remember it will get better

Other helplines and websites-

• Bullying UK – Helpline 0808 800 2222
• National Bullying Helpline – 0845 22 55 787 (this is a non-charity, voluntary organisation)
• Childline – 0800 1111
• Kooth.com – Online Counselling service for young people between 11-25 years (Available Monday – Friday 12pm – 10pm. Saturday – Sunday – 6pm - 10pm)