[Serious] Have you ever been bullied and how did it affect you?

Yep. It was consistently one guy doing the bullying from 4th-8th grade. He stopped briefly in 5th grade because I learned how to fight back, we kind of had a truce 7th grade (but he'd still find ways to throw me under the bus just to stroke his own ego), and 8th grade we were arguing every day.

8th grade, I was pretty much one of the least popular kids in class because I was a gamer and liked anime. This one bitch used to gaslight me all the time about it. One minute she'd act friendly with me while I got excited/passionate about video games. Next, she's start making fun of me in front of everyone about how she thought I was a loser/failed at life/should kill myself because I play video games. Then I'd call her out later on and she'd act like she didn't know what the hell I was talking about ("I never said that, I'm always nice to you!") while everyone else would join in. I've seen her a couple of times after we finished middle school, and both times she smiled and waved at me all friendly. To this day I still can't help but think she's fucking with me.

Oh, and there was a time when people thought that the first bully and I were a gay couple, so I was lucky if I could get through 2-3 days without getting bombarded with homophobic jokes.

TL;DR: Fuck middle school. I didn't get over a lot of the insecurities it gave me until college.

/r/AskReddit Thread