Dealing with bullying on Steemit the PINK way

Being attacked and picked on is just never fun, and no one on Steemit wants to wake up on a Saturday morning to a dozen of downvotes from a complete stranger. Something that looks like this:

Not a great way to start a Saturday, right?

This happened before I posted yesterday, and all these downvotes are on random comments or different posts. I don't know who @hendrix22 is, or what I've done to piss him off, or why he felt the need to waste his voting power on my comments around steemit.

I was angry.

So I decided to go and read around his blog. His latest post (at the time) was a rather touching piece about living with anxiety. He even suggested a steemit community for people dealing with mental disorders. I stopped seeing a bully, and started seeing a person.

So I decided to leave a comment.

I recommend you read the post itself, but my comment was:

 First of all, thank you for sharing with us all. I know it's not easy to do. Having been diagnosed with PTSD and GAD, I know how hard it can be to deal with the physical symptoms that can be a bloody torture. So even when you have the mental capacity to deal with the situation, your body can often just betray you. As for a steemit support group for mental disorders like generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression - there's currently a chatroom on the PAL discord that is about addiction and recovery. There's been talk of creating a similar one for people dealing with mental disorders like us. If and when such a chatroom is created, I will be happy to be there and offer my support as someone who's been living with this shit since age 15.Have a virtual hug, friend! And again, thank you for your efforts in bringing awareness to how debilitating anxiety can be.
<3 

At this point you might be confused. This guy attacked me unprovoked, downvoted my comments, and here I am offering his support. Am I nuts? Well, yes. But that's not why I choose to answer a punch with a hug.

Everyone deals differently with being bullied or attacked. In my experience, the attacker will expect you to retaliate. It's how most people respond, and it's how people "fight". 

I am done doing that and giving bullies exactly what they want.

I have exactly NOTHING to lose by showing support, positivity and kindness. In fact, I can save myself a lot of heartache by shrugging it off, reminding myself that it's all monopoly money, and that the steemit community still has more kind people that bullies. 

Perhaps, by showing kindness, we can infect these bullies, and make the platform better for everyone? Even if not, I still feel I've done the right thing by responding in a way @hendrix22 had not expected.

P.S. I tried to contact him on steemit.chat but failed to receive a reply. I do hope he will comment on this post and share his side of this experience.

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(Cover Image via Pixabay)