Autism, Bullying and Me: The Really Useful Stuff You Need to Know About Coping Brilliantly with Bullying

This accessible guide for autistic children and teens is full of advice for coping successfully with bullying. It helps the reader understand what bullying is and debunks myths such as 'bullying makes you stronger'. It also lays out self-empowering strategies and practical tips on how to deal with situations where they are being bullied.

Dr Emily Lovegrove – aka The Bullying Doctor – has written this accessible guide for autistic children and teens, full of advice for coping successfully with bullying. It helps the reader understand what bullying is and debunks myths such as ‘bullying makes you stronger’. It also lays out self-empowering strategies and practical tips on how to deal with situations where they are being bullied.

Practising dealing positively and successfully with aggressive behaviours changes the way that we view the world. It helps to stop ‘black and white thinking’ (they are wrong, I am right) and ‘catastrophising’ (I am never going to find a friend). Knowing we can do this forms a solid basis for higher self-esteem.

There’s lots of info in this book on what bullying is – and what advice really isn’t helpful! Such as can you really ‘Just ignore’ bullying? (No, because your body has a natural stress reaction making absolutely sure you are about to react in one way or another!) There’s stuff on how and why bullying starts, and how being seen as different in any way can affect whether we are more likely to attract that negative attention.

It encourages examining any black and white thinking, looking at how others might be feeling, and understanding how we get stuck in negative patterns of thought and behaviour. It also includes things like short meditations to ‘unstick’ ourselves!  But most of all it shows that even if we thought it was impossible to change how some people behave towards us, it absolutely is possible.  It just takes commitment to love and respect ourselves, to ensure that others recognise we are a vital part of all those individual, not-average-but-normal humans that make up our diverse society.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Am I Normal?
2. What is 'Bullying'?
3. How Do You Describe Yourself?
4. How to Calm Down So You Can Think Clearly
5. Why Are Other People So Awful?
6. Depression...and Worse
7. Three More Useful Anti-Bullying Strategies
8. Last Four Strategies!

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