Children and teens with ADHD are more likely to be bullied at school than their neurotypical peers. Why? ADHD symptoms and behaviors — impulsivity, trouble reading social cues, low self-esteem, and executive functioning challenges — make children easy targets.
And the repercussions are alarming: Brain scans show that all forms of bullying and abuse can cause visible damage to the brain.Bullying is learned behavior.
It results, in part, from living in a world that normalizes bullying. We see this every day in the way certain politicians speak and act, and the way some adults and children express themselves on social media.
There is an unspoken belief that bullying gets results. The truth is: From neuroscientific, medical, neurobiological, and physiological points of view, bullying and abuse do nothing positive.