My Pet Peeves >-(

"Speak a good word or remain silent” said Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.  

                 A simple lesson but one that some people do not practice. My pet peeves are bullies. Bullies hurt people, they promote negativity, and ultimately, they harm our society.

                There are many types of bullying, but I wanted to talk about the verbal ones. The ones that cause invisible wounds.  

                 Websters dictionary, defines a bully as, “a cruel, person who habitually insults, threatens or causes oppression to someone they may consider weak or vulnerable”. Bullying is a type of verbal abuse. According to Psychology Today in an article entitled “5 things everyone must know about emotional abuse” our brains react to emotional trauma in the same way it does physical trauma.

                 You’d think we’d know this. That even though it happens, as a people we’d reject anyone who outwardly displayed this type of behavior. Instead we’ve become a society that rewards bullies even though they promote negativity.

                  Just look at our favorite TV shows. There are so many examples of platforms made for bullies. From Chief Gordon Ramsey to Simon Cowell. From Tami Roman to Evelyn Lozada. Being a bully is promoted and praised even though it is bad and dangerous behavior.

               We find it in music. The rapper Eminem built an entire empire on bullying. We heard him go after his ex-wife and even his own mother. He packed the house, broke records in sales while verbally and emotionally tearing these women down. In an interview with People Magazine in 2007, his ex-wife Kim Mathers, describes how “Eminem nearly drove me to suicide”. The consequence for this type of behavior was his reward of fifteen Grammys.

                 Bullies hurt our society. Dr Dorothy Espelage a professor of psychology at the University of Florida says in an interview about this “When we think about being victimized chronically through bullying, we know from research that decades later, maybe thirty years later, if you’re chronically victimized, you will have a full blown diagnosis of major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. 

                 If we ourselves haven’t been a victim of bullying, we at least know of someone who has. The results of this type abuse have become way too common in our society with the raise of depression, anxiety and other mental disorders.

                To conclude, we need to help and protect victims of bullying, and we need to prevent bullying in order to help our society heal. 

                                                                       Thank you!