  The human mind is a miracle of creation. Everything in life, let alone the world, has an effect on it. It performs many functions of your body without you being able to stop them (such as regulating heart beat). Outside influences have reactions inside the body, and almost all of them initiate with the brain. So things that make us sad and depress out mood must have effects inside the brain and throughout your body. In this essay I will go into detail on the consequences outside insults, and even insults initiated to make fun of yourself, have on your body and mind.
When someone is made to be the joke of a group, or are insulted, the body jumps into action. The person may become defensive, aggressive, and angry. The person may also become quiet, reserved, and chose to segregate themselves from the community. Why does this happen though? What causes these effects? It all can be traced back to the brain.
When someone is afraid, upset, overjoyed or angry, the body sends a signal to the adrenal glands. The glands (located behind the kidneys) release epinephrine (e-p&-'ne-fr&n) (more commonly known as adrenaline). Epinephrine has an effect on almost all aspects of the body. When it is released, it creates many changes. The person can become aggressive and hyper. This is because epinephrine when released in high quantities (such as when offended) speeds up the conversion of glycogen into glucose, which provides extra energy to the muscles.
If you’ve ever heard of a man overcoming insurmountable odds (such as being mauled by a bear) and succeeding (like killing the bear with his bare hands), that’s because of adrenaline. It causes you to tense muscles, and it increases your heart rate and respiration. Emotions, such as anxiety, irritability, sadness and depression, or extreme happiness and exhilaration come out. It also locks the bowel and urinary systems, to ensure no leakage during combat (an evolutionary or creational change). While the results of epinephrine seem to be an asset when being insulted, the long term effects of high levels of epinephrine can be damaging. It lowers the immune system, and can cause chronic fatigue syndrome.
While epinephrine may be a major player in the whole system, it is not the only culprit. When constant put-downs and derogatory statements are put on a person, stress sets in. This isn’t the every day “oh my, not another test” kind of stress. This is the constant never ending beast kind of stress. With this kind of stress, illnesses and disorders can set in. In both women and men, it can cause clinical depression, bi-polar disorder (also known as manic depression), schizophrenia (these three especially from insult-oriented stress), acne, high blood pressure, obesity, glaucoma, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, irritability, stress headaches, dandruff, graying and balding hair, tremors, gastrointestinal problems, trust issues in relationships, and diabetes, among others.
In men, it can cause impotence, low sperm count, infertility, pre-mature ejaculation and weak bladder. In women it can cause irregular menstruation, difference in volume of menstruation (heavier/lighter), and decreased fertility. All of this from a few simple, but mean words. Although stress can cause all of these, why? What is it in stress that makes people essentially shut down? Just because someone called me “humongo” or “jumbo”, does that mean I am going to go insane and die?
No. The human body has built in mechanisms for dealing with stress. But these mechanisms are not fail-proof. If the problem is not managed effectively, then you can get problems, and later in this paper I will discuss these methods. Stress has four categories. The first is the “fight or flight” category, which is the where epinephrine is released.
Next is the internal stress. This is where comments about yourself that you make stress you out, or other items that you are stressing over. Thirdly, there is environmental stress, which is stress caused by your surroundings and people making comments about you. Finally there is fatigue and overwork, which can pile up over time. When the body senses stress the hippocampus (the part of your brain that consolidates memories into a permanent store) pumps out a stress hormone, cortisol. However when constant stress is in place, it damaged the hippocampus, throwing cortisol levels out of whack, creating memory loss and you can start forgetting favorite memories, causing stress, which then releases more cortisol, in a vicious cycle.
No one wants these things to happen to them. But how do you deal with stress and bullying? What about insults? Bullies and insults can be stopped. If you are the one dishing insults out about yourself, STOP! If it is someone else, ask them to stop.
If they refuse to stop, there is a simple 3 step technique you can try. Step one is to ignore it. When you ignore a bully, they do not get the attention that they so sorely need to feel power and control. If it continues, move on to step two, form allies and create a coalition against the source. No bully wants to stand up to a group of ten people who can be pumped full of adrenaline. And step three, Leave the situation.
There is not point in staying where someone is going to insult you. Why is this technique successful in many cases? It is due to the base that all that bullies are looking for is attention. They want to feel the power and control over another human being. This is because they have a mental problem. This may be from family situations, anger in the home, and is most often a learned behavior (they see father abusing mother, believe it is the right way to treat people).
If after trying many situations the bullying persists, you must tell a trusted adult and treat it as a criminal harassment case. As well as stopping the source may go, you still have stress to deal with. There are many good ways of dealing with stress. A lot of times stress is caused by inadequate sleep. Try to get at least 8 hour (preferably 9-11 hours) of quality (undisturbed, uninterrupted, silent, dark) sleep. Dump nicotine, alcohol, drugs, and even caffeine like last year’s eggnog.
Exercise. By exercising you can channel the stress you are feeling into physical motion, and burn that stress like a battery. Try classes such as yoga or Tai chi. All of these things can help relive stress. Insults and derogatory humor are some of the lowest forms of communication. After being educated in these, their effects, and dealing with them, and person should be able to shake a problem.
A major point that must be stressed is that it is never your fault you are being bullied, and NEVER bully yourself. For when one turns against themselves, they have nowhere to fall back. 
