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Studies have shown that social rejection such as bullying even in the mild form, can cause long term health damage. DeWall explains, Social rejection also is a complex construct, consisting of behaviors that can range from ignoring another persons presence to actively expelling him or her from a group or existing relationship. These behaviors always cause emotional distress for the victim at whom they are directed. In terms of emotional responses, social rejection tends to increase various types of negative emotions. Hurt feelings are the core emotional marker of social rejection, but rejection also increases anxiety, anger, sadness, depression, and jealousy (Leary, 200). Social rejection also diminishes self-esteem, defined as temporary feelings of self-worth’ (Williams et al., 2000). These emotional changes can be quite serious on their own but they also cause physical and behavioral changes. Bullying causes some physical changes to a person’s behavior after experiencing it. One example of this would be personal isolation and anger/sadness caused from social situations creating more of a social exclusion prone atmosphere. Personal and or social isolation is defined to be the insufficient interaction between an individual and the society around them. Individuals experiencing this, may be distant and want to for example hide indoors and avoid attending any sort of social events, for example dinners with family friends. But if people always stay indoors, one may lack fresh air/ exercise alongside social interactions to develop and maintain their mental health. It may also weaken the person’s immune system, making them more prone to infections when they encounter foreign outside bacteria resulting in a frequent sickness. These physical effects of bullying are often overlooked by schools when dealing with the problem. Another example of social isolation would be lack of social networks and support. Immigrants are a great example of such individuals. During times of stress and social exclusion, one may have no one or very few people to rely on for support and guidance during hard times. This would affect immigrant children to become victims of bullying more often. Health wise, isolation and its outcomes would cause this individual physical pain (suffering) and would increase the bodys physical stress responses resulting in the worsening

of their health status. Physical health barriers caused by bullying would worsen the individual’s state of being healthy.
In addition to the physical effects of bullying, there are also mental changes that come along with being bullied and isolated. Social rejection influences cognitive processes in two main ways. First, it reduces performance on challenging intellectual tasks, resulting in decreased performance (Baumeister, Twenge, & Nuss, 2002). This can impact the individuals self-esteem as a result of poor performance. Second, social rejection causes people to become cognitively attuned to potential sources of social acceptance and to potential threats, presumably as a means of gaining acceptance from others (Williams et al., 2000). This drive to gain acceptance reduces an individuals concentration and promotes self-doubt. But most importantly it can cause unhealthy behaviors in order to get accepted such as social drinking and smoking. Rejected people can also be hypersensitive to signs of threat (DeWall, Twenge, Gitter, & Baumeister, 2009). Anxiety is another serious mental health disorder, because it prevents individuals from functioning normally. An example of this would be hiding indoors and avoiding social contact during outdoor recess based on the anxiety that you will get bullied outside. This may linger with the individual’s health preventing them from getting enough fresh air and exercise and increasing the risk of germs. There are even reports of elementary school students eating their lunch in the washroom to avoid social situations. Anxiety is not the only mental issue resulting from social rejection, depression is also a factor. Depression is a condition categorized by unwanted feeling of sadness, preventing normally functioning individuals from daily activities. There are reports that claim 3 percent of people who were bullied as children ended up looking for treatment for depression in the ages of 6 to 29. Depression has physical effects on the brain. The brain produces a hormone called cortisol during times of stress and depression. When too much of this hormone is produced and sent to the brain, this can lead to memory problems associated with the shrinking of neuron production. Mental illness serves as a barrier in terms of an individual’s health and being socially active for those individuals suffering from it.