“You are an idiot”, Sam says.

Janice just hung her head turn around and went to her room.

This is how hard words can hit like a rock and the repercussions as we know it can be devastating especially on a person who may have low self-esteem.

 Negative words can have long-lasting results that spread far beyond the person to whom they were hurled.

Words are powerful. Children who were brought up in a household where sharp criticism and cruel taunts were the norms can tell you that words can hurt even more than body blows.

In our relationships with each other, we need to be very careful with the words we use. A child will carry a specific utterance for years and this could hamper even the very learning process while he or she is at school. “Yuh Dunce Like”(you are not intelligent)  these are words that should not be used especially when children a having difficulty learning.

These words will only tend to make the child worse. If you continue to tell children these things they will learn not to trust themselves and start to believe that they are no good and they will behave accordingly. This will lend itself to other disciplinary issues.

Now we also need to understand that this is not just about children. Adults are also affected by words and these words can either mend or break relationships and most times they break them.

People as old as you may think have feelings and so even when we are dealing with our employees or our significant others we need to take into consideration the words that we may use to them. There are plenty of studies that show the emotions of adults which were caused by hearing nothing but harsh and cruel things as they grew up. Many teenagers with poor self-images engage in bad behaviours that hurt them even worse: sexual promiscuity, drug addiction, even crimes like theft.

People will never always do things the way we want them to. We will never always be happy with those around us for various reasons but it never gives us the right to degrade or make them feel bad. Even though we may be angry we still have to be careful about the things we say as they could have terrible effects on those who we did not intend it to happen to.

It is therefore with this in mind that we should think seriously about thinking before we speak. Let us try to walk away before we say things that may be detrimental to other mental health. Let us understand however that anger does have its place but an apology can do wonders if harsh things are said.  This is not very easy for everyone because there are those of us who consider ourselves to be overly frank. There is however control in the minds of everyone and we need to try to do the things that will help to uplift all.