Dr. Daniel Kruger

You do have to address that.

Otherwise, your kid will forever be living in fear and they won't be learning.

You have to address it.

And look, it doesn't guarantee a good outcome.

But there's a role modeling that goes on for your child when you support your child against the bully and sometimes against the administration.

They say, you know, we're not going to take this anymore.

We're going to address it.

We're going to stand our ground.

As you've just said, we've seen many people in our social work and counseling practices who are affected long-term by bullying with depression, with anxiety, with low self-esteem.

They have been suppressed, oppressed in their lives, and they need a way to find their voice and to self-advocate.

Those are skills.

They don't necessarily come easily when you're working from a place of fear, but the degree to which you can adopt some of those skills, that is how you come out of that funk or out of those mental health issues.

You don't come out of it simply by saying, this is how I feel.

You have to develop skills.

I don't have any, but if I did have a friend, I'd be asking for a friend.

Sometimes these people like to go under the radar even though we know what's happening.

There's a concept of making what is covert, what is hidden covert.

Open, overt.

So sometimes addressing, other people call it the elephant in the room, addressing the elephant in the room.

You know, so-and-so, you've been saying these things about me.