The festive season fun will also be peppered with trepidation for particularly Grade 12 pupils who will be anxious about their matric results.
Not able to withstand the anxiety, some of them will opt for ways out. This will include running away from home to the horrific like self-mutilation and the most extreme – suicide. This was said by Mavis Rathogwa of NPO Lifeline.
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Rathogwa said those contemplating such steps are likely to have experienced depressive moods possibly for a year while going through school. “They would have lived with pressure and expectations of their parents or guardians to excel and be heroes in the community without any regard to the child’s own aspirations through subject and career interests of their own.”
She urged parents not to pressurise children to achieve what they themselves couldn’t achieve. “They have their own unique desires and ambitions which they expect parents to support. “They want parental love and encouragement to prevent them from depression, disliking and dropping out of school.”
Rathogwa said even those from stable homes will cope with similar pressure by opting for life in the streets, exposing themselves to sexual, drug and alcohol abuse when all hope for parental support is lost.
Parents, she said, should be there for their children from the beginning to the end of the year, not to be angry but support them regardless of the results they achieve. “Poor results are not the end but lessons to enable them to perform better the next time.
“No one enters examinations wanting to fail but the lessons learnt will enable them to do better the next time.”
She encouraged parents to provide them with nutritional foods to stimulate their physical and mental development, healthy bodies and to speak to them positively, explore other career and skills options of their strengths to enable their holistic development and ability to cope with many life challenges.
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She said unattended depressive bouts could emerge in later years including in their married lives when females resort to alcohol and sometimes drugs to help them cope. “When the marriage fails, they have no courage to seek help as they would not have learnt the value of positive feedback and support from others.
“Self-pride will make them resort to ending their depression by taking their lives. She identified depression signs as including wanting to be alone, loss of interest in things of previous interest, feelings of loss of loved and trusted ones, feeling overloaded with no one to trust and loss of interest in sex.
