Self-Harm and Bullying: From School to the Workplace

Bullying leads to self-injury much of the time, and unfortunately, bullying has no age limit. During my teenage years, bullying was something that happened everyday and was talked about quite a bit. Classes talked about it and some teachers made their students do projects on the topic. However, bullying doesn’t end in high school – it continues through college and you can face workplace bullies, too. For me, bullying and self-injury go hand-in-hand.

The Pain of Getting Bullied

In middle school, I got bullied because I was dating a nerdy music-geek. Being I was one of the odd people who enjoyed middle school, I didn’t care whatsoever and let my heart do what it wanted. However, once my junior year hit, I suddenly felt everyone’s stares burning through my skin and when people were whispering, I convinced myself it was about me.

During my years of severe depression and cutting, whenever I felt as though people were talking about me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Those thoughts led me to the bathroom, which led me to using the grated edge of the toilet paper dispenser to hurt myself. I’m guessing those who self-harm may feel this way too, at times, and when you have awkward eye contact with someone in the hallway, you immediately think they are going to talk about you.

This paranoia has never fully gone away (in my life).

After dealing with these bullying issues in high school and college, I was hoping the workplace wouldn’t bring as much paranoia. Luckily during my college years, I’d found coping skills to help overcome my need to self-harm. However, I still found myself dealing with cliques and bullies after getting that diploma.

Self-Harm and Grown-Up Bullies at Work

At my first job out of college, I walked into a worksite with many intense personalities. After a couple months, it became blatantly obvious that I was being talked about and made fun of and laughed at. Again, I felt high school flashbacks returning and I tried to steer clear of those staff members.

At my current job, even though I work with a much more professional staff, I still see the same things happening – staff getting annoyed with me, laughing at me and talking about me. I’ve been trying to keep more to myself and surround myself with positive staff I know support me. Recently, this has been causing a lot of anxiety, but I need to realize that it is human nature to talk about others and being that I vent to other coworkers, I, too, am guilty.

Self-Injury and Ripping Off the Bullying Band-Aid

Bullying never goes away because it simply is human nature. For self-harmers, bullying is one of the most recognized triggers when it comes to turning to self-injurious behaviors as an answer.

Self-harmers need to figure out what self-harm coping skills can be used when they are feeling as if others are bullying them. These coping skills need to be discovered now because bullying doesn’t go away. It follows you to college and the workplace and affects relationships with family and friends.

Bullying is like scratching at a healing wound – which some self-harmers may do when anxious (I’m guilty of still doing it). The pain starts to go away, but comes back when the band-aid is ripped off and you start thinking about it. What were they saying? Why did they do that? What did I do wrong?

Dealing with bullies is not easy, but it is possible.

You can also find Jennifer Aline Graham on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and her website is here. Find out more about Noon through Amazon.com.