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Aussie opens new business to let people give vent to stress, sorrow by smashing things

Xinhua, March 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

An Australian entrepreneur has opened up a business in Melbourne where heartbroken, jilted or frustrated people can smash assorted items in a room as a way to relieve stress.

Within the space, known as 'The Break Room', paying customers are given a baseball bat and allowed to smash a range of household items.

The room is wrapped in plastic, making cleaning up the remains of the wanton destruction easy, and patrons wear full protective gear.

The Australian creator of the whacky concept, Ed Hunter, said the room had already attracted a good share of business, and had proven especially popular with those going through a relationship breakup.

"We had a couple of broken hearts come through, couple of people who'd just recently broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriends," Hunter told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

A stint in the room costs about 50 Australian dollars (37 U.S. dollars), which is mostly spent on replacing the crockery that is broken.

The activity isn't very time consuming either, with customers only taking about five minutes on average to demolish everything.

Hunter said he'd seen people approach the demolition with very unique mindsets, with some creative individuals constructing wine-glass towers, opting to frisbee dinner plates against the wall and tossing teacups up in the air ready to smash with their baseball bat.

Despite the new activity's billing as a powerful stress-relieving technique, an expert warned that it might be dangerous to mix acts of aggression with feelings of happiness.

"It keeps angry feelings alive, it keeps aggressive thoughts active in memory," Professor Brad Bushman, from the University of Ohio, told the ABC.

"It's just like using gasoline or petrol to put out a fire. It just feeds the flame."

However, with business booming, Hunter has been forced to relocate his practice to a nearby suburb in order to set-up enough space for a second 'break room'. Endit