Psychological Strategies for Nigerian Cyberbullying Victims

Over the past ten years, there has been an extraordinary digital connectivity surge across Nigeria. Today, Nigeria has over 36 million users of its social media and 122 million users of its internet, establishing itself in the digital world. With the phenomenon of widespread internet access, it has brought innovation and economic growth, personal expression, but at the same time has raised a menacing increase in online harassment for Nigerians. Cyberbullying in Nigeria is fast becoming a serious problem that hurts people of all age brackets, with the young adults equally being the worst affected.

The NOI Polls 2023 study revealed that 41 per cent of citizens had experienced cyberbullying, which was most common among women and young people. While the psychological consequences of social media trauma are a serious cause for concern, Nigerians usually minimise social media trauma. This is why victims tend to feel severe psychological distress in the form of anxiety, depression and insomnia, which may lead to the tragic end of considering suicide.

Traditional mental health care methods are no longer sufficient because physical and digital realities are growing more and more similar. Nigeria’s people require a digital wellness strategy of combining cultural knowledge with psychological skills to combat cyberbullying. In the following article, SEO keywords are applied to practical mental health solutions for Nigerian internet harassment victims to help reach such people with vital guidance.

 

Understanding the Scope of Cyberbullying in Nigeria

The problem of cyberbullying affects all segments of the Nigerian population. The conversation about Nigerian youth mental health dominates because young people spend much time online, but adults and professionals, alongside public figures, also face cyberbullying risks. The forms of cyberbullying in Nigeria include both hate speech and body shaming, as well as doxxing and digital harassment. The perpetrators achieve a feeling of freedom through anonymity during many instances of cyberbullying.

The psychological effects surpass reputation-based damage. Nigerian internet harassment victims typically develop serious mental health problems that include high stress and diminished self-worth, and frequent panic attacks. Vulnerable individuals face more severe problems because society views mental illnesses and vulnerabilities as shameful, thus making it harder for them to seek aid.

 

1. Acknowledge the Emotional Impact

A necessary first step to fight cyberbullying requires understanding its damaging emotional impact. The developing state of online mental health care in Nigeria fails to assist victims who do not recognize their digital harassment trauma properly. The typical responses to cyberbullying include feeling emotionally flat alongside experiencing anger and withdrawal, while experiencing repetitive, intrusive thoughts. Identifying these warning signs becomes important for starting the recovery process.

Cyberbullying victims among Nigerian youths reached 60% according to the African Journal of Psychiatry in 2022, which identified anxiety disorders among these victims. Building psychological resistance to cyberbullying requires everyone to validate their emotions without feeling shame.

 

2. Seek Professional Mental Health Support

Professional help constitutes the most effective approach despite cultural restrictions against it. The accessible support services for Nigerian cyberbullying victims can be found on three online platforms: Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI), She Writes Woman and MyTherapist.ng. The services employ therapists who both understand the local cultural environment and provide precise solutions for their clients.

Given that, more and more Nigerian youth are gravitating toward digital therapy services, which are done through text messages and video communication. That means that the victims are getting access to support as they do not have to worry about what society might think of them. Using mental health services only in Nigeria as it exists now can lead to tremendous development in your digital situation.

 

3. Curate Your Digital Environment

Optimization of information you allow to come into your digital life across all your devices provides the biggest impact on your digital wellness. Reporting abusive users and using privacy settings correctly is what you should do, however, you should exercise utmost care while selecting your content consumption by muting inappropriate content.

It is digital hygiene as a psychological principle that makes people keep their digital environment as they are in charge of their physical environment. If people who live in the same house would never stand for verbal mistreatment, why are they ok with it on the social media feed that houses them?

There are options to remove harmful content from all the major social networks such as Instagram, Twitter (X) and Facebook. There is no weakness label for practicing self-preservation to protect your mental state.

 

4. Develop a Support Network

They also help in providing a social remedy to the feeling of being disconnected due to harassment online in Nigeria. Off and in private digital groups, a selected group of people gives you emotional support and gives you advice.

People can gain substantial psychological backing from strong familial and community bonds that exist throughout the country. There is indeed growing usefulness and popularity of both mental health-focused WhatsApp forums and peer-run Telegram channels and local support groups amongst Nigerian citizens.

 

5. Practice Mindfulness and Grounding Techniques

Mindfulness practices like breathing, mindfully journaling, meditation, and body scanning can help control the emotional distress caused by cyberbullying. The methods would be helpful either during or after the occurrence of cyberbullying.

In the case of when you need to remain grounded towards cyberbullying, exercises that require you to find 5 things you can feel or see will enable you to stay present and handle the emotional response to cyberbullying.

The Retreat and Praiseworld Mind Clinic, as the first of such facilities in Lagos and Abuja, have taken it upon themselves to pioneer specialized mindfulness programs for digital traumatic experiences. Long-term resistance against stress is made by adding these practices to regular activities.

 

6. Educate Yourself About Cyber Laws in Nigeria

Knowing what your legal position is will offer you more control over what is happening to you. Section 14 of the Cybercrimes Act of 2015 of Nigeria has certain offences of digital harassment as illegal. Awareness is not irrelevant because it lets people feel a sense of control in the face of the inconsistent nature of enforcement in Nigeria.

Victims in such cases may report them to the partner organizations, which in this case are the Nigerian Police Cybercrime Unit and CyberSafe Foundation. As a result of her understanding that the law protects her from abuse, she becomes less disturbed by online attacks and stronger psychologically.

 

7. Reclaim Your Narrative

Victims said to experience the sensation that their personal stories have been taken from them. Narrative therapy offers you a therapeutic power that gives you the capability to rewrite your story and tell it to highlight the fact that you survived and grew stronger.

Nowadays, several Nigerian creators and activists and public figures are choosing to use Medium, along with Instagram and TikTok, to share personal narratives that will help them reclaim their digital experience in the public square. Revealing one’s recovery path is a positive therapeutic process for the person revealing it and can also be an inspirational pull for others.

This particular strategy will be applied to the Nigerian youth who experience social media trauma. They, through this approach, understand that first, by others, they do not have to go through it alone and learn too that there is recovery.

               

8. Advocate for a Healthier Digital Culture

Change doesn’t happen in isolation. Positive changes in digital culture will happen to some extent through careful advocacy work for better social media policies and appropriate punishment of offenders. First, do this locally by confronting the damaging conduct within your Facebook and WhatsApp groups.

Digital advocacy is the main movement for youth mental health in Nigeria. Two hashtags are used in the online conversations about promoting accountability and safety (#StopCyberbullyingNigeria and #DigitalSafetyNaija).

 

Conclusion

The cyberbullying problem in Nigeria will not be well-tackled soon. There is no passive or submissive solution for this problem. The reasons people withdraw from digital spaces of benefit are that the consequences of not doing anything remain high and that these have adverse mental and emotional well-being effects, as well as adverse economic productivity consequences.

To truly have psychological strength, Nigerians should practise mental health as a digital activity against cyberbullying. Trauma should be handled by Nigerians by using both cyberbullying support services available within their country and digital wellness practices and online-offline support networks, as well as mindfulness techniques. The knowledge of the protective laws and the storytelling ability aid such individuals in converting their suffering into empowerment.

Thinking about strength as setting new definitions is its real value. The desire for cultural stoicism in Nigeria is a strong force that infuses the people who are out in the open to show that they are crying while helping to fight for digital safety that puts protection above punishment. In Nigeria, the Nigerian youth are both major targets and leading agents in that they are poised to transform the digital landscape of Nigeria.

So, awareness coupled with active efforts and advocacy should serve as the mental strength in the Nigerian digital environment to make it safer.