with me, after years of such abuse, I did in fact "put up a wall"; if you haven't figured out, it's never come down, and I doubt it ever will..keeps going up higher and higher in fact!
My personal favorite is "what exactly did they say to make fun of you?"
What kind of idiotic question is that? What..are these folks the sole survivors of some abandoned town in a 50s horror flick or something?
Gee, ya mean people actually have to directly come out and say "I think you're a massive, $#@&-sucking loser", to be harassing you? Haven't I heard somewhere that communication isn't simply verbal?
And in fairness...yes, these bullies are insecure...much like the rest of the population who is also very much so. Abused? In some cases, but not necessarily.
They're the type who put forth no effort to doing anything with their pathetic lives, so they'll just take it all out on the one person who's different.
And also take note: the majority of the crowd--including the nice ones, deep down--will have no problem with that.
Basically, these bullies are saying to you--albeit abrasively--what the rest of the crowd is really thinking.