I now stand up for myself ,as if you don’t stand up to a bully things will never change. It has affected me as I sometimes don’t realise that I am being bullied by work colleagues or friends as it has been the norm for a lot of my life. The only time I get involved now is if she upsets my parents and then I find I can really stand up to her. Now, if she is lonely I will get lots of texts and phone calls, but if she is in good form you won’t hear from her. I could probably write a book on that, she did so much. It was physical sometimes as well, but I became bigger than her and that stopped pretty quickly. Snide comments at every family gathering and always trying to make out she is better than me. Even when I was very thin I was constantly called fat. The insults got worse through my teenage years and the ones about my weight were constant. I suffered with anxiety for many reasons but one of my earliest memories is her calling me stupid when I was just four years old. She has ended up a very lonely person and I almost feel sorry for her. She is now in her 40s and will be nice to me now if she wants something. My older sister hated me from the day I was born. My older sister hated me from the day I was bornģ) The snide comments were always the worst. I’m happy most of the time now but the scars and pain of my childhood never leave me. For most of my adult life I kept going back to my sister trying to “fix” the relationship to make it better. It’s horrendously uncomfortable and frightening to be alone with the two of them. I am deliberately never alone with my mother and sister. Yet, the dynamic continues whenever the family gets together. I went on to become very well educated, well travelled with many friends and a good job. Their behaviour had a devastating impact on me. I had no self esteem and felt completely isolated. My mother laughed at the insults my sister so readily hurled at me. She has always gained something from seeing me upset and being left out.Īs a child, my mother colluded with my sister. She compliments everyone else and makes them feel great about themselves. Fiercely intelligent and sharp, she is a highly skilled manipulator and extremely cunning. This continues today in the form of me being completely ignored at family events in front of everyone. My only memories of my older sister by two years are of her constantly excluding me. My tormentor was there every day waiting for me until I finally had the means to move out. That way, at least I could have told someone about it and received support from my friends and teachers. At times, I wonder if I would have been better off being bullied at school instead of at home. His teachers always referred to him as an excellent, well-behaved student and never once got into trouble. He was gifted academically, receiving one of the best Leaving Cert results in his year. What I could never understand was how differently my brother acted outside my home. I was so hurt by his insults that I actually scratched the mole off my face, which resulted in it becoming infected. During my early teenage years he kept referring to a small mole on my face, saying things like how ugly I was and how no girl would ever go near me. There have been plenty of times when he would barricade me inside my bedroom for the entire day, warning me if I came out he would beat me up. Even on my birthday, if my mum didn't buy a present for him too he would explode into a fit of jealously and anger – this continued until he was about 20. It became a nagging obsession of my brother to compare his life with mine, demanding I receive no special treatment or attention from my parents. There was just something inside him that he truly despised about me. My brother, who is four years my senior, made my life a living hell. I prayed for my brother to disappear off the face of the earthġ) As horrible as it sounds, there have been many times that I prayed for my brother to disappear off the face of the earth die in some horrific accident, or even take his own life. Unfortunately, we cannot publish all the submissions, but here are a sample from our readers. The articles provoked a strong reaction from readers – many of whom were keen to share their own experiences of sibling bullying. Recently, The Irish Times published a series of articles about sibling bullying.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |