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In other news, fire hot, water wet, the cat meme has finally run its course.

I had three bullies in junior high, a “pack” in high school led by 2 of the bullies, and some later life ones, that I was more effective in dealing with (funny how HR can work sometimes). It was not a good life experience, nor did it make me “tougher,” nor in some cases have I forgiven them.

The funniest part of it is that two of them are social workers now. I reconciled with one of them in HS, decent guy with lots of his own shit, I am sure. We talk even to this day. The others can pretty much die in a fire in my mind, because quite honestly that made a super stressful time, even more difficult. I never indeed found out the motivation of my bullies other than making the new kid feel unwelcome in a small town.

The torment was not just a mild shove here or punch or 2. Teachers refused repercussions, even with an assault in front of one. I recall being told by the vice-principal at that time that I just “needed to toughen up.” Of course, that is the status quo and probably still is at Clay Center Middle School. I would highly doubt any changes exist now because it is a small town in Kansas, and schools in general still tolerate or turn a blind eye to that behavior, even in progressive school systems.

After spending three years of being pushed, shoved, punched, kicked, spit on, had snot blown on me, pissed on once in the shower, clothes stolen, clothes thrown in a toilet full of shit, one asshole getting a girl to pretend she liked me and then dumping me at the movies in front of them, and the list goes on.

As a note, I was not even close to “out” and was very careful about where my eyes went besides its Jr. high and Freshman HS. No one had the goods or had reached an “impressive,” stage of development.

Your kid won’t tell you about shit like this, and that happens. It still fucking happens. So the fact that bullying has a long-lasting impact. Damage is both mentally and now, according to a new study, physiologically as well. That’s right; it screws with brain development, glandular development, and hormone balance. The effects are very long-lasting and can cause issues decades later, according to an article from undark.org in October that discusses a study done on the physiological effects. It is sad to see these results buried amid the minutia as they genuinely show much more damage than we ever thought.

In recent years, a steadily increasing volume of data has demonstrated that peer victimization — the clinical term for bullying — impacts hundreds of millions of children and adolescents, with the effects sometimes lasting years and, possibly, decades. The problem is even recognized as a global health challenge by the World Health Organization and the United Nations. And yet, some researchers maintain that not enough has been done to understand and address the issue. “It is more than surprising that childhood bullying is not at the forefront as a major public health concern,” noted the authors of a 2015 scientific review in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

It can’t be a public health concern because that would take public health’s efforts away from porn (Jeebus, if you think porn is an issue, you desperately need to exam your priorities).

Long-term changes to the brain’s structure and chemistry are an indicator “of how sinister bullying is,” says Tracy Vaillancourt, a clinical psychologist at the University of Ottawa. Along with others in the field, she is hopeful that studies like the one from King’s College will be a catalyst for further research, which could ultimately be used to inform policy decisions and support anti-bullying interventions.

So far, not shocking but it gets better.

Quinlan’s team was not able to determine which biological mechanism The body’s stress response is regulated by the hypothalamus altered the brain volume of the youth in their study. Vaillancourt and other researchers suggest that findings from the child maltreatment literature could provide one possible explanation. In these studies, “toxic” stress and the stress hormone cortisol appear to alter brain development.

ic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The hypothalamus — an almond-sized region near the base of the brain — helps regulate vital sensory data such as metabolism, sleep, temperature, hunger, thirst, and, emotions. The hypothalamus is activated by the amygdala — an essential region for processing emotions — when danger is detected. Following their initial release of adrenaline, if danger continues to be perceived, the adrenal glands release cortisol into the bloodstream. Higher levels of cortisol allow the body to operate at higher performance when it is exposed to an acute stressor. But chronic stress — such as experiencing persistent bullying — could have just the opposite effect because memory, cognition, sleep, appetite, and other functions are continually on “alert” and not allowed to repair.

So yeah, yet another way to show we could give a rats ass about children and development. It would seem that we only care when we force a woman to carry a child.

I can speak for the long term effects of bullying. Yeah, I had anxiety for years and issues with everything else. I did learn how to deal with those situations by addressing them, but sadly that wasn’t until years after high school. My response to this whole episode in my life manifests itself in unhealthy behaviors, so the results are not surprising. The results are pretty sad when you think of folks that go through tons in their life that could have been solved by interventions. I will be honest; to this day, I am pretty fucking unforgiving of that vice principal, principal, guidance counselor, gym teacher (who also stood and watched).

My time in the Army finally solved it until the rape. I view that as an incident, that command doesn’t or won’t address out of their cowardice. It is nice to see that there is physiologic damage as folks tend to regard that as tangible as opposed to psychiatric injury often disregarded.

We need to do better, like listening to your kids and fucking parent. The school systems are horrid and need to improve dramatically by holding them to the task. I wish I had a better grasp when I was younger, because I may have forced the school board to deal with it. Maybe I should have filed a lawsuit as that seems to get people’s attention. You shouldn’t regard school resource officers are some magical solution as they are not. Schools need to deal with this as educators, not just call the cops. I doubt some new kid at Clay Center Middle School or Clay Center High School has it any different than I had it, and the same lack of oversight still exists. Yeah, I have called this school out. Prove me fucking wrong if it offends you.

Lastly, my memory of the school nurse and her lack of compassion, “You need to learn to be a “big boy” and fight back or deal with it better.” Yeah, Solid advice. I fucking hope anyone with RN, MD, PA, NP, is doing it better than this.

While I love my mom, she did lousy with this. Did you wonder why I hated school and often refused to go? Why my clothes were filthy, why I needed new stuff all the time?

Be the kind of person your mom and your dog hope you are.