My Son Was The Victim of Bullying

by Cindy Reiff
(Bensalem, Pa)

My son, who is 22 years old now, was bullied quite a lot when he was in grade and middle schools. He was overweight and bullies teased him mercilessly. I did not find out about this until he was older, or I would have tried to do something to put a stop to it.

Because of the relentless bullying, he had and continues to have many emotional problems. Feeling angry and helpless at the hands of the bullies, he had no way to fight back. This made him even angrier, and he has an anger management problem today. Being bullied as a child also caused him to suffer from clinical depression. Needless to say, he is ultra-sensitive about remarks about his weight.

During high school, my son’s emotional problems became evident and we did everything we could to help him. After getting a complete physical to rule out neurological problems, he began seeing a psychiatrist, who prescribed anti-depressants for him. In conjunction with the medication, he saw a therapist every week. We also sent him to an anger management class.

Since it was his weight which caused the bullying in the first place, he constantly puts himself on diets to improve his appearance.

It has taken a lot of hard work for him to recover from the emotional damage done to him by bullies. He continues to recover.





Response from Dr. DeFoore

Thanks for your entry, Cindy. Your story points out just how damaging bullying can be. Others may learn from what you've shared, and be helped.

For you or anyone dealing with bullying, you'll find this page on bullying to be helpful. There is help here for the victim, the victim's parents, teachers and even the bully himself.

Take this as a challenge, and rise to it. You can grow smarter and stronger from this.

My best to you,

Dr. DeFoore