Bullies are cowards who turn their anger outwards so they don’t have to deal with their own feelings. They seek power and control over others by intentionally harming them in order to feel better about themselves.

And while bullying can affect people all the way into adulthood, it often hits kids the hardest because they don’t know how to deal with the fear and humiliation it brings (and they don’t understand that bullying says more about the person doing it than the victim).

Studies have shown that being bullied – whether it’s physical, verbal, or even over the Internet – can affect schooling and mental health, and can plunge people into fits of anxiety, depression, and even lead to suicide.

Liam was bullied – in fact, 7th grade nearly killed him.

It happened in 2017 and no one noticed a change in his behavior right away. But over time he lost interest in food, soccer, and friends and started exhibiting some uncharacteristic behavior that his mother Deirdre Fell-O’Brien was concerned about. He no longer hung out with his friends, rode his bike, or proudly carried around his beloved soccer gear.

In an interview with The Well, she said she knew things were serious when Liam told her one day that he no longer wanted his cell phone. He wouldn’t tell her way, but she started keeping a close eye on him.

She asked Liam what was wrong, but like most 7th graders he wasn’t interested in explaining his feelings to his mother.

But she didn’t give up.

“I was determined to get to the bottom of my son’s sudden and severe dismissal of his former passions, but he was so secretive and closed off,” Fell-O’Brien said.

Eventually, Liam stopped eating altogether.

When he refused to go to school one day, Fell-O’Brien sat her son down and told him he had to come clean about what was hurting him. That’s when he broke down and told her he was being bullied.

“I asked how often they did this to him. He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Every day, Mom.’”

She was heartbroken.

Liam told her that boys at school were telling him he “sucked” and shouldn’t be on his formerly-beloved soccer team. He said they called him names, physically abused him, and even told him to kill himself.

This had been going on for a year.

It was clear to Fell-O’Brien that Liam was suffering from depression. In fact, it was physically obvious by that point as well – he had lost a tremendous amount of weight.

Since bullying is so common these days, Fell-O’Brien had the resources she needed to get her son help.

By the time Liam revealed the source of his problems, he had lost so much weight that when his parents took him to the hospital, he needed to be admitted and placed on a feeding tube and heart monitor. They felt helpless and guilty for not realizing how serious things had become.

Sadly, the parents of the bullies refused to take responsibility for their sons’ actions and the school never held anyone accountable.

When the school refused to intervene, Fell-O’Brien shared Liam’s story on Facebook in a post that went viral.

“I felt like I needed to shout Liam’s story from the rooftops,” she told The Well. “The words just fell out of me. It was cathartic. I read it over and over to myself and hit send.”

While some might assume that Liam would be even more humiliated by the attention, he was actually buoyed by the outpouring of support it brought from around the world – it showed him that he wasn’t as alone as he thought.

Readers even created the hashtag #WeStandWithLiam and made shirts, bumper stickers, and ribbons and shared their own stories of being bullied to bring awareness to the issue.

His mother believes that seeing people rooting for him was one of the most important steps towards his recovery.

Liam’s depression and accompanying eating disorder were so serious that he spent ten weeks in an intensive inpatient facility being treated. But he did recover!

And when it was time to go back to school, Liam shocked everyone when he said he wanted to return to his original school. He even wanted to finish out the soccer season! And that’s just what he did.

No longer was he going to let bullies steal his happiness.

Liam’s story has sparked conversations all over the world about how bullying affects young people and has led to more open and honest communication about appropriate behavior towards others.

But there’s still a long way to go before we put an end to this behavior – and we all have to do our part by being more aware and taking responsibility whenever we can.

If you or someone you know is the victim of bullying, visit StopBullying.gov for resources and support and know you’re not alone.

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Source: Bare the Bully, The Well