Bullying is something that people should not have to go through, yet something that is often difficult to stop. I have had experience with bullying and feel like I can give advice about the topic.

Hopefully, these pieces of advice will help you if you are feeling upset about bullying you may have experienced. Here are six things that I learned about bullying and its effect on me.

1. The bullies will only keep bullying unless action is taken
   As long as you do not do anything to defend yourself by telling parents, teachers or administrators, the bullies will keep bullying you. If they do not feel threatened, they will only get worse and you will have no choice but to be the victim of their bullying. Bullies are only bullies if you let them.
2. You have to stand up for yourself
   In the real world, you have to be able to take care of and defend yourself. You can defend yourself verbally, for example, by saying “stop” or asking what you did to make the bully hurt you. No one is really going to be there to stand up for you, so you have to be able to do that.
3. You should not care what other people think or say
   If you let a bully’s words get to you, you may become upset but you should not. Yes, I cared about what people thought and sometimes I still do, but bullying taught me that it does not matter what anyone but yourself thinks about you.
4. You are not alone
   There are many people who have also been bullied, probably a lot that have been bullied the same way as you. Trust me, if you feel as if you are alone, you are not. You have people like parents, therapists, family members that you can count on.
5. If you see bullying going on, do something about it
   If and when you witness someone being bullied, do not just stand there and watch. Become involved – tell a nearby teacher or administrator, try to stop the bullying in a careful manner. Be careful not to get too involved, or you might get in trouble by having an experience that the bully can use to haunt you.
6. Bullying should not change you, but should be a part of you
   You should use your experiences to make better, wiser decisions and you can even help someone from being affected by bullying.

Follow Sofía on Twitter at @sofia_i_g