By: Lerato Moteane
On Friday the 21stof February, Home of Solace in Vosloorus held a stress awareness event to help people deal with what they going through. The awareness helps one to break hold of stress in life for happier, healthier, and more productive days. it is significant to know what the cause of the stress is, so you acknowledge it and seek help.
Lebohang Hlatshwayo, a secretary at Home of Solace explains, “People are faced with a lot of stress, Now we need them to learn more about how to manage and overcome their stress.Not managing stress causes a lot of problems and people end up getting sick which lead to stroke, high blood pressure, substance abuse etc.”
Home of Solace is a wellness centre that teaches more about stress awareness. “Most of our patients or clients are faced with after effects of stress; we first do counseling and up to now we see difference from the people we helped. We started stress awareness because people are suffering,” said Lebohang.Home of Solace is open for everyone to come and make use of the services. we also refer you to relevant departments, and everyone is welcome.”Abuse is one of the contributory factors of stress as it can build up when it is not managed. Lebohang says, “people are not talking and that causes more stress. It starts off as stress and then escalates to abuse.” He adds, “people are silent to a point that when they let it out they do out of anger or abusing people.”
Stress affect everyone; even the youngest child can be affected. “From what I’ve learnt is that stress does not choose any age. For example, “an infant for not getting milk it also contributes to stress” it’s unfortunate that no one can recognise it because they are not able to speak yet,” Lebohang said. Talking about things is emphasised in order to help manage stress, as well as joining support groups or exercising.