In this episode of The Grass Gets Greener podcast, I'm joined by Robyn King, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor for the state of New York. Robyn joins me to share her story of finding a way to be happy and live a good life after being bullied in school and as an adult.
Click the play button below to check it out!
The Details
Traumatic experience:
Robyn started getting bullied in the 5th grade because she began puberty early, which made her stand out from the other girls. It lasted through 6th grade until the other girls started puberty as well. Robyn was mostly the target of the boys in her class. She was later bullied as an adult as well for her size. She also married a man who turned out to be abusive, which made her feel like she had been fooled.
Effects of the traumatic experience:
Two ways in which Robyn was most affected by her experiences were feeling self-conscious about her body and developing a mistrust of males. She also experienced low self-esteem and gained weight in order to be less attractive to men. After getting divorced from her abusive husband, she went many years without being able to date anyone because she felt like she needed to protect herself from getting hurt.
Overcoming the traumatic experience:
Robyn decided to take charge of her life. She earned degrees that allowed her to get the job she desired; she started focusing on her health; she started dating again; and she empowered herself by learning more about bullying behavior. By better understanding how others were also impacted by bullying and why people bullied in the first place, she was able to reframe her past experience and forgive those who hurt her as well as herself.
What Robyn does today:
Robyn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor as well as an aspiring author.
Final Question:
Given what you know now, if you could go back to when you were going through the tough times and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
Robyn's Answer: It's not your fault and what's happening today doesn't have to affect you for the rest of your life; it gets better.
Links Mentioned
Eating Lunch In The Bathroom - Robyn's blog on the topic of bullying
LinkedIn - Robyn's LinkedIn profile
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