Sorry if I come across as pedantic, or if I'm stating the obvious here. :-o
Oh well, it can't hurt.
I tend to think of bullies as those who
externalize stress (take it out on others) while depressed and anxious people
internalize the stress (take it out on ourselves). In both examples, the personalities indicate an unhealthy lifestyle in some way. The victims aren't receiving enough love, and may have painful relations with peers and family in some cases, or simply lack enough
good friends, or lack friends altogether. There are other sources of stress as well, but it is not uncommon for most people to experience some degree of either anger/ bullying others, or depression/ anxiety.
Those who are truly content and happy (who may also be popular socially) who
aren't depressed and who are actually
nice to others are probably the most mentally healthy. It sometimes seems uncommon to find these people (especially in HS) due to the destructive social environments.. namely, the fact that the gov't feels the need to force a bunch of adolescents from different family backgrounds and cultures all under the same roof every day by law. Considering the fact that the majority of the population has no idea how to raise kids - it's not exactly the most well thought-out system in regards to a collective institution advocating the value of learning and cooperation.
Apologies for dragging this out, but it had to be said. I can't help myself I suppose. :\ Now, I will clarify that a lot of
good progress is happening in education on a daily basis, but not nearly enough. The U.S. specifically is ranked quite low on the top 100 best educational systems of developed nations worldwide. Coupled with the fact that we're oh.. say.. the WEALTHIEST nation in the world, is not somewhat disturbing? Before I get criticized here,
yes I have thought out many solutions to the problem, and I'm not going to start on that here, for fear of going off-topic (plus, I don't want anyone to fall asleep on their computer keyboards
) so I'll just conclude this by saying - Hang in there, bullies and separation of cliques are a temporary problem that will be practically non-existent by college, depending on location. If it is still a problem for you, you're hanging out with the wrong crowd. I made that mistake for many years myself.