How body shaming affected my mental health

I was bullied and body shamed for being fat from my childhood. Even though I was ignoring the mocking of people at first, I was not able to bare the shaming anywhere. At some point, it even took me to the deepest part of depression. I will be totally down. I stopped talking with people. I stopped making friends, reduced family time, and avoided family gatherings. I made myself alone so that nobody would be able to be near me to troll or mock me for being fat. 

I stopped being friendly with people and began treating them with an attitude, hoping that they would think I was rude and avoid me, or else they would be scared of my attitude and never return to me. Days passed by and then I realized that keeping yourself away from people is not mentally healthy. I tried to make friends, but I was not able to. Stress and depression struck me like lightning. I would stare at a wall for hours without even thinking about anything.

That depression made my mental health shatter into pieces; I was not able to concentrate on my studies. I was not eating properly. I was not sleeping properly. After looking at this, my parents were very worried and took me to see a psychiatrist. At the first meeting, I did not say a word to him. And as the days passed by, I started talking. I explained my problems to him. He was so friendly that he talked to me very casually. He told me that people are going to mock you whether you are fat or lean, so never take that seriously and worry about it too much. He also said that they will continue the act only when you start responding to them. If you stop responding to them, they will stop mocking you. The next day, I boosted my energy and packed my school bags to catch the bus. I followed what the psychiatrist told me to do. I did not respond to any of the bullying at school, and guess what, it worked out. I started making friends who supported my goal and helped me move forward in life towards achievement. Then, after some days, the bullies got irritated and beat me to the ground because there was no response from me to their mocking. That shattered me so much; I was in the hospital for months. My parents talked to the principal about this; they even asked me if I wanted to change schools. But you know what, I surprisingly said no. I told them that if I am not ready to face this, I will lose myself. I also told them that I would never change my school just because this incident happened.

After recovering, I went to school, but to overcome myself from the trauma, I went to the gym at the same time. I spent nearly 2 hours in the gym after my school. I saw my confidence level boost as I started growing muscles. During those two hours, I didn't think about anything but working out. The bullies who mocked me started staying away from me because of my physical appearance. I never built my body to scare someone. After that, I knew what to do when I was feeling down and depressed, and I began working out whenever depression struck. I surely believe one thing: whenever you believe that you can overcome the problem you are facing, you will surely overcome it. It might take longer than you think, but you will surely achieve it one day.