How To Deal with Anger

When we get angry, it can be difficult to control it. Have you yelled, broken something, or said something you regretted out of anger? These mistakes are part of being human. It can be difficult to manage our strong feelings, especially when we feel hurt, or when we feel like an injustice has been done. The step to controlling your anger is understanding it. Here are some healthy ways to manage your feelings of anger.

Am I Really Addicted to Video Games?

You have to ask yourself, What am I trying to cover over in my life to where I go into another reality (not just for 15 minutes or 30 minutes, that wouldn’t be an addiction), but for hours and hours and hours?

Relationship Help: I Feel Like People Don’t Respect Me

People respect you when you act with kindness, integrity, and honesty. But it’s a process, and it can take time. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming, especially when we are grappling with past choices we’re not proud of. There are steps you can take, but what you do depends on the reason you are being treated with disrespect. Different situations call for different responses.

Toxic Relationships: What Is Gaslighting?

Emotional abuse occurs when someone uses emotions to control or hurt you. Some of the most common “tools” used by emotionally abusive people are manipulation, shaming, and deceit. If you’re with someone who constantly twists your words to make everything seem like your fault, or who shames you or speaks cruelly to you, it’s time to get help. "Gas-lighting" is a term that describes an emotionally abusive relationship. If you are questioning your situation, learn more about the warning signs. Please know: emotional abuse is never your fault, and you can break free!

[Video] Bullying Prevention: How to Disarm a Bully

Dealing with bullies can be tough, especially when they share the same school or work environment with you. It’s understandable that standing up to a bully may not be an option, particularly if your safety and well-being are at risk. You may want to consider responding to the bully with kindness.While it feels totally wrong, it can often disarm them. It’s no fun to pick on someone who doesn’t react. Learn more in this video with school psychologist, Brooks Gibbs.

What To Do When You Hate Yourself – 5 Tips

Feelings of hating yourself can seem like they go so deep or back so far that they’ve always been there. But there is a root to feelings of self-hate and you can find healing from them.

How Do You Protect Your Online Reputation?

The Internet has the potential to define the reputation of a person for good or bad. Online is often where someone's first opinion of you is formed. What people see or read about you online influences their opinion of you. You have some control and the best thing you can do to protect your reputation is to manage your online presence. There are some simple, easy ways to do this.

What Is Bullying & Tips for Breaking Free

Q: This May Be Why You Bully Others (Here’s What to Do)

Bullies often engage in abusive behavior for the same reasons others do: they feel a need to control and dominate someone. That unhealthy need may come from a variety of places, including their own unmet emotional and spiritual needs. Many people who experienced abuse in their own lives have later become stuck in toxic mindsets and behavior patterns that became bullying. If you have bullied others, it doesn’t have to control your life. You can build healthier relationships and learn how to communicate your feelings and needs.

Q: The Toxic Name I Lived By—and How I Broke Free

Low self-esteem can happen for a variety of reasons. If you've been through a painful experience, your self-esteem can suffer. Sometimes it can be a single conversation that really makes you feel down in the dumps. Other times, traumatic experiences in your childhood or younger years can have negative effects on your self-esteem that don’t seem to go away. Read how Tim's 7th grade year completely stripped him of his self-worth.

Were you bullied as a child? Is someone you’re related to, or in a romantic relationship with, bullying you now? Did something cause you to bully others in the past? Whatever the circumstances, bullying can damage close friendships and relationships— often beyond repair.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t find peace.

Most Recent Blogs on Bullying
Podcasts about Bullying
Videos on Bullying
eBooks on Bullying
Ask Dawson Questions on Bullying
Personal Stories on Bullying
Resources for Bullying
Spiritual Perspective for Bullying

Are You Being Bullied?

When people are close to you, it’s sometimes hard to tell if you’re being bullied, or if someone in your life just needs help with anger management. Here are the most common signs of bullying we’ve seen from people who’ve reached out TheHopeLine:

Verbal, Physical, or Emotional Abuse
Mockery
Public Humiliation
Isolating and Abandoning Others
Damaging Others’ Property or Belongings
Online Harassment

Like other types of abuse, bullying can leave physical and emotional scars. You likely feel depressed and anxious, even when the person bullying you isn’t around. Being bullied might make you so fearful of other pain or trauma that you avoid being around people and doing things you’d otherwise love.

Breaking the cycle of bullying starts with reaching out to people who can help you in a place where you feel safe. That could mean live chatting or emailing one of our mentors, talking to your pastor or therapist, or calling a friend or family member you trust. In many cases, people build a network of support from more than one safe relationship.

Have You Been a Bully?

People who have been bullied aren’t the only ones hurt by the unkind actions, thoughts, and words. If you’ve ever been a bully, you’ve likely experienced guilt, shame, and fear the hurtful patterns will repeat themselves in a new relationship or friendship that you want to get right.

It’s likely that the pain you’ve caused others comes from your own unresolved pain or trauma, Maybe, in your darkest moments, you’ve felt you wanted to punish yourself with self-harm or suicide. You are not your past choices. You can get confidential help without fear of judgement. You can find a way to accept your faults, and forgive yourself for your mistakes.

Breaking Free From Bullying

Whether you’ve been bullied in the past, or have been unkind to others, your difficult and painful experiences do not define you, and they don’t have to shape your future. You can free yourself from the harmful impact of bullying on your self-worth.

We’ve seen people who have been bullied reclaim their confidence. We’ve helped people who have hurt others understand the roots of their own pain, and work toward greater kindness and compassion. No matter how dark things have seemed in the past, you can heal from the painful scars of bullying, and that healing can start today. Not sure what to do first? Request prayer, or an email from a mentor at TheHopeLine.

We have lots of resources (blogs, ebooks, podcasts, and more) to help you sort through the difficult emotions caused by bullying. Search our library for answers to important questions like:

Will someone who is abusive ever change?
How does faith help heal a broken heart?
How can I learn to love myself again after being bullied?

FAQ on Bullying:

Am I bullying people online?

It's easy to say things online that you normally wouldn't say in person. You have a choice to make your words bring hurt or hope. If you aren't sure if you are the bully, watch this video.

Learn more

Most Recent Blogs on Bullying

How to Respond to Hate With Love

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Hate is defined as an “intense, passionate dislike” between people. Individuals can hate other individuals, or groups can form based on their hatred of people they perceive as different from them. Perhaps you’ve been treated hatefully by someone else, or you’ve seen a friend or family member be treated that way...Read more

What to do if you are being bullied

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If You Are Being Bullied: What To Do Did you know that 1 in 7 students in grades K-12 is either a bully or a victim of bullying? Or how about the fact that 90% of 4th - 8th graders report being victims of bullying. If you are being bullied, you're..Read more

This May Be Why You Bully Others (Here’s What to Do)

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Understand Why You're Bullying Sometimes we realize difficult things about ourselves. If you’ve noticed yourself blowing up at others or lashing out when you’re afraid you won’t get what you want or need, you could be bullying people around you. While that can be hard to accept, I want to commend you..Read more

The Toxic Name I Lived By—and How I Broke Free

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Finding Freedom From Labels Middle school. Seventh grade. That was the year I began living by the name that stripped me of my self-worth. “Stupid.” The first time I heard that name, it was from a couple of my neighborhood friends. I loved to make them laugh. And they laughed at stupid things...Read more

Podcasts about Bullying :

Videos on Bullying:

Cyberbullying: Are You Bullying Others Online?

Bullying Prevention: The Unity Day Project

Bullying: Sticks and Stones Break Your Bones, but Words Hurt Forever

Why Is Life So Hard? Find Hope and Help at TheHopeLine

eBooks on Bullying :

Ask Dawson:

Son Abuses Mom: How to Stop the Cycle of Abuse in My Family?

Stories on Bullying :

Bullying: They Hated Me So I Hated Myself

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I’m Dewinsar and I’m 19. Everyday after going to school, I just sit in my room doing nothing. I wonder why I’m still going to school. No one wants me there. They hate me and said that I’m not wanted. They push me away like I’m a monster. Sometimes I..Read more

Eating Disorder: I Stopped Eating to Become “Good Enough”

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I had to think long and hard about if I should share my story. Then I came to the conclusion that it would be worth it if it lets someone else know they aren’t alone, and it could be therapeutic for me. So here is my story and what led..Read more

Don’t Lose Hope In Tough Times. There Is More.

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Chatting with your HopeCoaches seriously brought me through some of the darkest seasons in my life. Don’t lose hope in tough times. I have used TheHopeLine several times. It was a really powerful tool that actually helped me vent out stuff that had piled up for years, and now, I..Read more

One of the Biggest Reasons I Never Killed Myself

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You Are Not Alone in Your Struggles You know probably one of the biggest reasons I never committed suicide as a teenager, was because every Sunday night at 10 p.m. I’d go to my room and turn on my radio, plug in my headphones and listen to the Dawson McAllister..Read more

Resources for Bullying :

Spiritual Perspective :

Verses of Hope

Free eBooks

Free eBook: Understanding a Relationship with God

A guide to understanding the basics of Christianity and a meaningful relationship with God. Do You Feel Like Life is Meaningless? Are you wondering what your purpose is? Do you have questions about what Christians believe or what it means to be a Christian? At TheHopeLine we believe real and lasting HOPE can only come […]