24 Jul 2020

There is light at the end of the tunnel for every hopeless and depressing situation.

This is the message that Tautona Chaba aims to share through his book: Rose- Colored Glasses.

The recently published inspirational book offers hope to the hopeless and depressed souls.

In an interview recently the Serowe-born writer said life had its fair share of challenges and sadly, challenges were something that everyone had to experience at any given point in their lives, hence the birth of Rose-Colored Glasses.

Rose-Colored Glasses is a statement of hope, in which Chaba shared his personal story of battling with hopelessness and depression. 

It offers some sort of bibliotherapy to those struggling with depression and accords great escape and solutions to the problems brought about by depression with real-life illustrations.

He said the inspiration behind the book was the challenges he and different people faced, and he aimed to show that it was okay to feel weak, depressed or low. He said he aimed to also drive people away from the idea that depression was linked to poverty only.

A trained journalist by profession, Chaba said his book, was a dedication to the one who cries in silence and sees no end in sight for their challenges.

“It speaks hope to a hopeless heart with the aid of real life testimonies. Solutions to a depressed soul and a source of hope. Sadly, depression is about more than just having a bad day or feeling weepy for a few hours. Depression can last for weeks, months and even years if the suffering person doesn’t get help from the right people. The most encouraging news or information is that depression is treatable and there is light at the end of the dark tunnel,” he said.

Depression can be long-lasting or recurrent, substantially impairing an individual’s ability to function at work or school or cope with daily life.

Chaba further said, through Rose-Colored glasses he was able to address issues of depression and to motivate someone to actually focus on the positive side, even though a depressed person needed more than just motivational words. The kind of help available for the treatment of depression includes psychotherapy and medication.

Chaba further noted that, there was a lot of stigma against people who suffered from mental illnesses because not everyone was informed enough to appreciate or understand mental illness. 

So, people will hide in the dark and dreary place that is their own world and not reach out for help, he noted.

But left untreated, people who suffer from depression lead lackluster lives, while those who can not bear the challenges of life end up taking their own lives.

Chaba said  while the book was planned to be launched in April 2020 such did not materialize due to social distancing stemming from COVID-19, and as such the launch was billed for September this year. Currently he is in talks with different book stores to have the book in their stores. ENDS