I described in my last SharePost how I had been bullied for years during my childhood, both physically and emotionally. As you can imagine, it’s painful to dredge these memories up, although to be honest, I wonder if they ever really went too far under the surface. I think that this is the real danger of bullying. Even if the child makes it through a bullied childhood physically intact, there is no way that he or she is not affected emotionally and mentally by the bullying. Any adult who’s been bullied carries the scars, and their self-image and sense of self worth can be forever distorted by it. The overweight boy who was called “fatty” may grow up to be fit and athletic, but to some extent, he’ll always see himself the same way that other children did.

But let’s go back to the present, to what a child that you may know is going through. The child who’s enduring the bullying suffers emotionally, in every way you can think of. His self-image takes hit after hit, and he feels impotent and helpless to control the situation. None of us, adult or child, do well emotionally when we have no control over our daily lives. Being bullied can lead to depression and anxiety, and in some truly tragic cases, it can cause a child to commit suicide.
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I was bullied through much of my childhood, beginning when I was seven years old, which was when we moved from New Jersey to a wealthy town in Connecticut in which sports were worshipped. I was, to put it mildly, not very good at sports. Not only was I somewhat uncoordinated, but my Attention Deficit Disorder (or complete lack of interest) caused me to space out when the phys-ed teacher was explaining the rules of whatever game we were about to play. When we were subsequently playing, of course, I wouldn’t have any idea what was going on and would screw things up for my team. Or I’d be daydreaming in left field and miss a ball coming right at me.

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We often hear that suicide rates are highest during the holidays. I even heard a character in a Christmas TV movie warn about the risk during the last holiday season. Seems to make sense, in a way. After all, the holiday season even has its own syndrome – the holiday blues. Many people are stressed out, and for anyone who’s alone and depressed, the contrast between the ideal of the holidays and reality can be hard to take.

Here’s the problem – the prevailing wisdom is wrong. In fact, we’re not heading away from the most dangerous time of the year for suicide, we’re heading towards it. Suicide rates are actually at their highest during late spring and early summer, and at their lowest around the holidays. There does appear to be a jump on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, which is thought to be due to the holiday season ending and harsh reality settling in.

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