What To Do If You Are Being Bullied

Step 1: Recognise Bullying Behaviour

Bullying can take many forms - verbal, physical and psychological. Verbal bullying is when the bully calls you names and makes threats to you. Psychological bullying is when you are made to feel excluded, worthless or vulnerable. Sometimes this form of bullying is so subtle that it takes a while for you to realise what is happening. Physical bullying is when the bully kicks, pushes or hits you in any way.

Step 2: Get Help

First and foremost, you must talk to someone you trust to help you deal with this. This might be a teacher, parent, friend or sibling. Although this will seem scary, telling someone about your problem will help to lighten the load and help you to resolve this. They will offer you support and suggest solutions you may not have thought of. If you feel more comfortable, take a friend with you when telling an adult. Talking to someone does not mean you are weak - on the contrary it takes a lot of strength and courage to do.

Step 3: Stay Positive

Remember, above all, that this is not your fault. The bully has probably chosen to pick on you because they are jealous of you. Perhaps you do better in school than them, or you are more popular, or more attractive. Keep reminding yourself of all your good points and the things you do well.
Remember that the bully must be feeling inadequate about themselves if they feel the need to treat you this way. The reason they are bullying you is because they have their own problems, not because you are the problem.
Positive self thinking always helps - keep saying to yourself that you are better than the bully because you don't need to pick on people to make yourself feel good.

Step 4: Be Confident

It is difficult to be confident if a bully is making you feel bad about yourself, but if you can manage to do it, it may throw the bully off track. Stand up to them and ask them to leave you alone. You can try being nice to them, or use humour - either of these approaches might throw them enough to make them stop. Try not to show your vulnerability to them. Be confident in the fact that your friends like you for who you are, and your bully's friends probably only hang around with them out of fear.

Step 5: Ignore The Bully Where Possible

A bully will want to see a reaction from you, so if you ignore them and don't show them that their behaviour is affecting you, the chances are that they will eventually get bored and leave you alone. Surround yourself with people that you feel safe with - the bully is unlikely to approach you if you are with a group of people.

Step 6: Use visualisation

Build an imaginary wall around yourself so that any verbal abuse from the bully bounces off it and doesn't touch you. Turn your mind off and think of something else so you can't hear what they are saying to you. Imagine the bully with a funny shaped head, or with funny features - this will help to take your focus off what they are doing and instead you will find it funny. Be careful not to laugh out loud at them though as this is likely to aggravate them more.

Step 7: Call A Meeting

If all else fails, and the bully refuses to give up, ask your teacher or parent to arrange a meeting between you and your parents and with the bully and their parents so that you can all talk openly about what is going on and put an end to it. As a last resort and if all the other tactics haven't worked, this could be the best way to resolve the situation.