When Adam Przytula was in primary school he started getting eczema so bad he needed cortizone injections, which changed his physical appearance.
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This led to Mr Pryztula being teased and bullied for the rest of his school days which became so bad in high school that his world fell apart.
"I was champion boy until Year 4 and was really popular," he said.
"Then I went on the roids, which has a certain end result, I doubled in size and went from being the fast kid to being the chunky kid.
"The bullying started around that point but it did not really become bad until Year 8.
"In Year 7 my own friends turned on me so I went into high school not trusting anyone, and did not find friends until the middle of Year 9.
"High school did not get better because the bullying had started from day one and it did not end until I left Year 12.
"I was bullied every single day of my high school life.
"It falls into a space that was so traumatic that I do not have photos from that time, I just went numb emotionally and mentally.
"I had a key relationship with my grandmother, without her I don't think I would have made it through."
When Mr Przytula left school he found self-worth and it planted a seed that he wanted to help high school students, and be the person who created something that practically helped with all the things he had struggled with.
He worked as a school chaplain and a teacher, before he created Armed For Life in 2012, which has seen him talk in more than 500 schools in WA.
"Everything in Armed For Life I do because of my experience in school, it is essentially the reason why I decided to do it," he said.
Armed For Life is organisation which runs programs to help children, teenagers and adults develop resilience and increase their wellbeing and mental health.
Mr Pryztula will be holding an event in Busselton on April 19, 2021 for parents, teachers and other adult community members who would like to attend.
"We will be talking about bully proofing kids because of my experience and will link into wellbeing," he said.
"Quite often I hear in casual conversations with parents that their kid is being bullied and they do not know what to do about it.
"Dads often say, punch them in the face. I say, are you serious? What are you setting your kid up to for the rest of their life by dealing with problems through anger and aggression?
"It might work right now and you might think it toughens them up, but it doesn't. It solidifies in their brain if something goes wrong they just have to get aggressive and it will solve their problems.
"There are so many layers and there are things your kid can do when they are struggling with bullying, and the most important thing is to teach them to deal with it themselves rather than trying to jump in and save them.
"Part of the reason we have the most least resilient generation is because the number one thing about our parenting style is that we do not let them fail and don't let them figure things out for themselves."
Since its inception Armed For Life now covers 30 different topics across 9 different programs.
"Out of the 30 topics resilience is the most booked and is the top of the list every year, that is from Year 4 to Year 10 parents," Mr Pryztula said.
"We often get emergency resilience sessions in schools for Year 11 and 12 because they have got their mock results back and they are freaking out that they got less than what they wanted.
"Other programs such as self esteem, bullying and real men real community has spiked in the last 12 months because of COVID-19 lockdowns and pornography.
"Two years ago I took over an organisation called Frame Initiatives which has sessions around building positive and safe relationships.
"They are based on respect, sexual harassment and consent, which has obviously been on the rise and I took that on because I wanted to talk about pornography in schools.
"It is such a problem."
Anyone who would like to attend the Armed for Life event in Busselton which will cover bully proofing teens and kids can email reception@busseltonphysiotherapy.com.au or phone 97524174 to register. Please include your name, the number of people and your contact details.
The event will be held at the Esplanade Hotel from 7pm to 9pm on April 19. For more information visit armedforlife.com.au.
