If you look back in history at human achievement, one thing which you may find quite common is the notion that very few of those achievements were ever actually done by one person alone. Even if one person was at the helms of the achievement (such as Charles Lindbergh who did the first ever solo flight across the Atlantic in his plane ‘The Spirit of St Louis’) there was always a team of people in the background helping to make the achievement come true. To achieve anything great in life, one needs a support network of people who can guide them or lend support when needed.
The power behind having a team or network of supportive people who wish the best for you, be it only 1-2 people or 10,000 people, cannot be underestimated. Having such a network can make even the highest of highs just that slightly bit more exhilarating, while helping you out from the lowest of lows. And the same can also be said for confronting bullies as well.
Having people for support can help combat the effects of bullying
So if you are currently being targeted by a bully, be it at work, socially or even at home, than having a team of people you can turn to for help and support is of real help to your psychological well-being. In many cases, people who have being pushed to the edge of suicide have been saved merely by informing someone else of their problems and been talked out of such an act.
Evolutionary psychologists, psychiatrists, etc, all agree that as a species, we humans are naturally social animals; we need to be around others once in a while. Personally I can see this instinct of ours after I have witnessed my pet cat having just had a fight with the neighbour’s cat whom is a bit of a ‘Cat Bully.’
Anyhow, after the two cats have squared up and fought one another, my cat naturally wouldn’t go up to me for comfort. Instead she tends to go into solitary hiding under the bushes in the garden where I can only guess she is somehow calming herself down and psychologically overcoming what just occurred for after a few minutes, she seems happy enough to come out of the bushes and walks into the house as if nothing has just happened; if only we humans could overcome the effects of bullying so easily.
Fortunately it is still possible to undo and overcome the damaging effects that bullying has on your psyche and well-being and as you may have guessed, one such method is to develop a social network of friends and family. Now before you say that you don’t have anyone who you can actually turn towards, I can assure you that in actual fact, there are people you can turn towards. In fact, I can say this with greatest of confidence, even though I don’t know you.
How can I perceivably be so confident? Well for one thing, I know that the chances are you probably have some family member or friend who’d you can express your concerns about bullying to. The chances are that you just probably never considered approaching them beforehand with your ideas and suggestions.
Yet even if I am wrong and personally you don’t have any known family or friends at all, than there are many different bullying charities and mental health organisations who would be able to assist you. Now please don’t get me wrong for by mental health organisations, I am not referring to ‘Nut Houses.’ Instead I am referring to support groups set up by NHS, etc who will be willing to sit down and talk with you over the bullying issue and how you can resolve it. A brief search online (Google is my recommendation) would supply you with a list of such groups.
However, the chances are that you probably won’t have to even consult such groups unless you truly want too for most probably there are people you personally know that you can approach for help. If there is such a person you feel you can approach for support but don’t want to be a strain on their time, than simply imagine how you would feel if someone came to you for support due to being bullied. Ask yourself ‘Would I try and help that person out or simply tell them to go away and sort the problem out themselves?’ Like you’d probably do yourself if approached by someone in need, most people in my experience are only too willing to help in the best way that they can!
