Moot police held an event to raise awareness of mental health and breast cancer on Friday at the Mayville station.
The event was attended by, among others, police officers and community members.
The event follows after October month, which was both mental health and breast cancer month.
“Various illnesses such as cancer affect people’s mental health and lead to depression, stress and anxiety,” Wonderboompoort police station Commander Lieutenant Colonel Dinah Tabane told attendees.
“When you have these kinds of illnesses, you become weak – both mentally and physically.”
She said people who suffered from mental health problems were unable to perform both their work-related tasks and personal duties effectively.
“We should remember that the mind is the engine of our body.”
She said their officers’ minds, therefore, needed to be revived.
“Without having healthy mind employees, we cannot deliver a good service to the community.”
According to a psychological practitioner, Noxolo Sneli, various kinds of mental disorders start from stress, which is divided into two parts including positive stress and negative stress.
“Positive stress occurs when, for example, you are working hard to meet your deadline. Negative stress occurs when, for example, you are fighting with your partner at home or going through a divorce. Such behaviour interferes with your daily functioning and is therefore regarded as negative stress.”
She said there are multiple causes of stress.
“Stress can be caused by among other things having financial problems, fighting with your partner and exposure to various traumatic incidents all at the same time.”
She said people also experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, which includes previous and current events that cause stress.
“All those things affect the mind and the body.”
“The sad part was that people often hide issues related to mental health because they believe they are a sign of weakness.
“Programmes like these help us talk about mental health issues.”
She said anyone could suffer from major depression and anyone could suffer from a bipolar mood disorder.
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