Anyone who has ever been in a group of people who all expect something from you, and you feel you have no other choice but to comply, has experienced peer pressure.
Peer pressure can be experienced in thousands of different ways. It can be kids towards kids, adults towards adults, adults towards kids, and kids toward adults. In any situation where you feel as if you are compromising what you truly want in order to just keep the peace, that is what you are experiencing.
Now I have experienced this most of my life. I have always been a "good girl" and kept my mouth shut on my feelings, opinions, needs, and wants. Simply because by mentioning any of these things, I would be judged, and always found lacking. A fact which was never hidden from me. Be it from children I knew, people I worked with, or my own family, I always knew.
Peer pressure has many nasty effects that most people don't even think of. These effects can be anything from being momentarily hurt, to a deep depression that ends in self harm and suicide.
The problem is that, in the world today, people have no compunction in taking what they want. It doesn't matter who or what gets in their way. This has actually always been the case, but in todays' world, it is much more overpowering, and absolutely everywhere you look. People trample over those they consider weaker or inferior, and in the process cause so much damage, yet they don't care.
In many cases I was forced to give in to what was expected of me to do. The arguments, insults, and breaking down of myself was simply not worth the slight disagreement I wanted to make. As a child in school, I often gave in to what others wanted, all in order to feel accepted. To not be bullied, and made fun of, simply because I did not fit in to what the common standard was.
This had a multitude of negative effects. My already low self esteem was lowered even more, I did not want to look up from the ground to make eye contact with anyone, because making eye contact means challenging, and all challenges shall be answered. I was too scared to voice my own opinion, and even when I agreed to whatever it was that was expected of me, I was still treated badly, because I was a pushover.
I had no way of making anyone happy, especially when it came to family issues. And the combined effects of school/work, and home life broke me down to such a point that I did not have even the slightest form of energy to look up.
Oddly enough, the person who treated me the worst out of everyone, is the one who helped me get out of it. My father was an abusive man. Especially mentally and emotionally. And I was his favorite little toy to play with. My father broke me. In many, many ways. And ironically enough, one of the things he tried to do to me, completely backfired, and it gave me the confidence to actually start looking up and start to stand up for myself. After he started the process, my best friend stepped in and completed it.
So, as much as I cannot stand the things he did to me, that is one little thing I can thank him for. But by the time he realized what he did and tried to backtrack, my best friend had stepped in and taken over, and I will eternally be grateful for that, because if she had not done that, I would have ended up exactly where I was before that was triggered.
I lived my entire life being pressured into being one person or another because I was never good enough. A pure accident helped me see a tiny spark of light, even though it was only for a second. A spark that I thought I would never be able to see. But even though I was extremely depressed, and so completely lost in that void, that accident helped me get better. Other issues came into play after that, but on this matter, a complete accident helped me to get up and find a part of myself long buried.
So no matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter how deep into it you are, there is always a tiny spark of hope for everyone. You just have to be willing to see it.
To anyone who is depressed or needs help, please follow the below links to Destroy Depression and Online Therapy. They have the capabilities and resources to provide help in any situation.
https://www.online-therapy.com/?ref=271714
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