You damage people with what you say.

 A while ago, I saw a guy was drinking at a pub after a football game and he sat down at a card machine, started tapping away his life, and an angry woman appeared at his side telling him he'd taken "her" machine. She hadn't pressed the reserve button, so he told her to beat it, things got heated, she called him a few bad words, then he let fly and told her to "f--- off, you fat, ugly, four-eyed, lesbian moll".

 She cracked him in the head with her handbag, amusing several booze-hounds and as I watched the woman leave, I could see the insult had struck deeply; it seemed it wasn't the first time she'd heard similar words...
 We're told as children that sticks and stones may break our bones, but names can never hurt us. While it's true in theory, I've dealt with more than enough men and women who've been victims of bullying and name-calling to see the effects accumulate.

If you get called a "fat loser" or "faggot", "retard", "ugly", "slut" or "greasy wog" enough times, it starts to infect your psyche.

 The very negativity attached to these utterances transfers and it's only a kid - or adult - with a massively high self-esteem who can withstand continuous insults and not bend a little to their fury. It's what happens to a lot of boys (and girls) in high school: it's the kill or be killed mentality and a sharp tongue, a penetrating insult or nasty nickname can often be your deadliest weapon in this battle.

 It doesn't end when you graduate either and you just have to look at the jibes and personal attacks thrown in our parliaments and on our sporting fields to know that a carefully constructed insult is widely considered a reasonable tactic to undermine an opponent's confidence.

 The links between verbal abuse and anxiety, depression, disorders such as OCD as well as suicide have been studied and proven for years; there's no newsflash there. But do many or any of us pause to think about the damage done by a choice insult delivered out of our car in traffic or at the pub to a passing stranger? I'm not suggesting we outlaw plain talking or even ridicule, but it's worth remembering that the cutting things we say to other people are like drops in a jar and, when a person overflows, you better hope they don't own a handbag...or a handgun.