Bullycide: A Closer Look
- Posted: February 10, 2009 and this post was last modified February 10, 2009.
The term ‘bullycide’ comes from the merging of the words ‘bully’ and ‘suicide’ as the teens who reach a point where they can no longer cope with bullying resort to suicide. Hence the term ‘bullycide’.
Often associated with school age youth, bullycide can refer to anyone resorting to suicide to escape their bully problem including adults. Regardless of the dangers and propensity for suicide that bullying does cause, bullycide is still not an issue that has a lot of awareness associated with it.
Bullies are not addressed because they are either ‘just being kids’ or are just plain not in the wrong in cases of grown adults (after all, they are grown adults). Bullies are supposed to make you stronger they say. Bullies are supposed to help you cope with the real world they say. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words could never hurt us…right?
How easy is it for us to say these things when we are not the targets. The fact of the matter is words do hurt, and bullies do not just rely on words.
Teasing, taunting, games, and jokes are not fun when you are at the tail end.
How can we say it is a character building experience when we do not know what other character building experiences the people are going through? Perhaps they have a hard family life at home, perhaps they are traumatized by a recent death, perhaps they have other things that are more important affecting their lives. Why put more on them? Why condone hatred? After all, no one loves a bully.
If you are a teacher or parent, you cannot dismiss the issue of bullycide; these kids rely on you for guidance and protection–how could you let them down? Bullies will always be, but how we handle them does not always have to remain the same. Action will always be better than inaction.
There are some who cannot grasp the idea of someone taking their life over a bully because they do not think anyone should have that much power over someone else’s life. They also contend that a bully should not be held responsible for someone else’s actions.
Fair enough.
But have you felt the utter depths of despair that these kids feel when they are being bullied? Sure, in hindsight school was just a single fleeting point of time in the grand scheme of things, but when you are kid in that moment, it is life. After all, these moments will make or break you. These are the times where you experiment with who you are, what you want, and finally determine what you are going to do with your life. How can you do this if you are constantly being brutalized?
Just as an adult feels trapped in their life and seek solace in suicide, how can we not expect kids to have the same feelings? Suicide is an issue that everyone wants to combat, but part of that is dealing with the issues that lead to suicide. That is why the word about bullycide needs to be spread. People need to know the drastic effects of bullying. No one wants to deal with the loss of a child or loved one.
Bullycide refers to someone (anyone) being bullied to the point where they think their only ‘out’ is to commit suicide. The sad fact of the matter is that once someone commits suicide, there is no real case to investigate so the heart of the problems are left up to the friends and family to infer. No real solution can be had if the sources are not dealt with. No one should have to reach a point where they feel their best solution is to cut their life short.
I have personally dealt with depression and suicide so I know the utter feeling of the world just telling you that suicide is the answer. But it’s not. So much life left to live and so many ways to live it; suicide is never the answer and only creates more problems.
Sure it’s been said that suicide is a selfish action, but do you guys understand that these are not because of anything more than feeling trapped and not wanting to burden anyone. Or feeling that there just is no other option.
Bullycide is something that must be dealt with to assure a bright future for our youth and a successful life for our adults.
Popularity: 76% [?]
