Bullycide: Death by Bully
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With so many recent cases of suicide being talked about in the media, it leaves many wondering about the new term Bullycide.
This new term is a hybrid of bullying and suicide to explain when someone takes their life as a result of being bullied.
There are many students who face being bullied every single day whether it is at school, around their neighborhood, in public places or online. Cyberbullying has taken the concept of physical bullying to a whole new level, which is why many researchers believe it is often responsible for cases of bullycide. With many students taking their lives after being bullied by fellow peers either in school or on the Internet, it leaves parents, teachers and their friends wondering what can be done to prevent bullycide.
What is bullycide?
The correct definition to this question is bullycide is suicide caused from the results of bullying. Children and teens who are bullied live in a constant state of fear and confusion in their lives. Many feel the only way to escape the rumors, insults, verbal abuse and terror is to take their own life.
There are several different reasons that ultimately can lead to bullycide including:
• Being constantly physically and emotionally bullied
• Experiencing constant physical and emotional pain
• Having to continually relive an embarrassing moment over and over that is regularly brought up by peers as a method of torment
• Being the victim of bullying by an authority figure like a parent, teacher, coach or other adult
• When the victim of bullying has no other friends to rely on for support or encouragement while being bullied regularly
This new term reminds us of Amanda Todd's heart-wrenching story.
When Amanda was in grade 7, she made a bad decision. I’d guess that there aren’t too many of us who didn’t make one or two, or many more, of those when we
were growing up. Chatting online with the aid of a webcam, she agreed when the person on the other end, the one who told her she was “beautiful, perfect, stunning”, asked her to lift up her shirt. This regrettable, forgettable transgression came back to haunt her a year later, she said, when someone threatened to send that captured image to everyone she knew.
Eventually this person did just that, starting a cycle of bullying and abuse and harassment that, despite changing schools and even cities, Amanda never managed to get free of.
As the photo circulated on Facebook and among classmates, Amanda recalls how she spiraled into depression and anxiety and then, later, substance abuse, self-harm and suicide attempts. On e night she sadly succeeded, and as local media outlets reported the news, her video and her story soon followed.