Health Impacts of Bullying

Bullying can have detrimental impacts, short-term and long-term, emotional and physical. These health impacts can be suffered by children and adults, both during a bullying relationship and long after it's over. One common example we see around us is disordered eating where a bullying victim may cope with the stress by comfort eating or overly tight calorie restriction. 

Here's an informative article by Jenny Hart, re-published by my colleague Susan Heitler on Psychology Today. She discusses the many health impacts from stress, such as is felt by victims of bullying.

She covers everything from poor digestion to asthma. 

Here's a sample: 

"Being bullied also takes its toll on your immune system, which may increase your likelihood of infections, allergies, autoimmune conditions and even cancer. Periods of stress are linked to increased occurrence of upper respiratory tract infections[12]. This association may relate to the interaction between the nervous and immune systems and the fact thatwhite blood cells carry receptors for stress hormones.  "