Shanz | Manurewa
“I’m stressed every day. Stress is, is a normal thing for me.
I’m working. I work, that’s stress. Living in South Auckland, seeing this poverty of people living on the streets, that’s stress too, because not only they’re stressing, we’re stressing too because we’re looking at them stressing. Seeing our kids, with no food and that, that’s stress.
There’s a lot of shit happening and all, and I just want it to be, want it to be fixed from the Government. That’s all.
When you feel stressed, you just pray to the man above, really. Just give him your all. I never knew who He was. I used to be an angry person. I used to just go up there and just, I’d cause a lot of fights and stuff like that.
You feel more good if you’re not stressed. Yeah, go for walks, talk to someone, get it off your chest, don’t hold it in, as Māori we’re stubborn. Just don’t hold it in. Just, yeah just let it out.
I grew up in South Auckland. I went to so many schools, joined little gangs. I’ve had a family. I’ve got two sons. I lost them through, through my drug life, I was hooked on P. I haven’t really had a good life. To this day I’m still going to court, maybe going to jail today, because I don’t know how to learn to wake up. Really, I just want to go straight, than being my bad past. I’m over it, had enough, so that’s why I go to church. That’s why I pray to that man above, to help me get back on the straight and narrow path, than being who I used to be.”
**FEELING STRESSED?**
Check out these resources from the Mental Health Foundation: Stress and how to Handle it and the Five ways to Wellbeing. Need to talk to someone? Free text or call 1737 anytime.
