BELTON, Texas — October is recognized nationwide as Bullying Prevention Month. It's a growing problem across the country and in Central Texas.
Nick is a sixth-grade student who's been dealing with bullying in his Belton middle school.
"Pretty much call me ugly, she goes 'no one will ever love you or like you or anything," he told 25 News. "I just don't understand people."
He said one of his classmates often calls him names and threatens him.
"Sometimes it makes me feel uncomfortable, sometimes it just makes me angry, sometimes it just makes me sad because I don't like being treated like that," Nick said.
His mother Anita Hancock told 25 News over the years she's seen an impact on her son from years of bullying.
"I see signs of anxiety, signs of depression," she said. "His self-esteem has dropped. He's worried about 'I'm going to school, what is this person going to do today?'"
Local Adolescent Therapist Katie Chadwell said bullying can impact a child's mental health, especially during their most formative years.
"Anxiety, depression - those are very, very common for kids who are experiencing bullying, especially kids who are experiencing it long term," Chadwell said.
A lot of their self-worth comes from their peers because they are peer-focused, that's very developmentally appropriate. Their self-worth is very much externalized. If their peers are saying they're not enough, it really takes a whole lot of combatting from family members and other trusted adults that they do have worth and they are okay."
The biggest way to support a child being bullied is to believe them and allow them to talk about their experience.
"We need to sit there and explore their feelings about it, not just jump into 'I'm going to call your teacher' there's time for that," Chadwell said. "We also want to say, 'I want to hear what that's like for you, I'm wondering if you can tell me how you're feeling and what it's like for you to go to school.'"
Bullying can happen even outside of school. With social media getting more popular every day, cyberbullying can have just as much of an impact on a child.
"These kids are getting bullied at school. They're getting picked on or hit, isolated or left out and then they come home and whereas we used to have this safe place to come home to, these kids don't have a safe base anymore," Chadwell said. "They come home and get on their phones or their tablets or their school computer and it's on there too."
"Even when you're not at school, it's really upsetting for it to happen to a child, and no one does anything about it," Nick said.
Nick has his way of coping with his bullies, but says he wishes more people would stand up for each other to prevent it from happening.
"Even if I don't know the person, I'm going to stand up for them because no one deserves to go through that," he said.
