The Cure For Depression

The cure for depression may be found in Cameroon.

Often times, when you're feeling lowly about your own life, someone might tell you to think about the less fortunate. Think about all of the people suffering in the world who have far less than you have. Think about the people who lack food, shelter, clothes, fresh water or the people who live in worse conditions than you do.

In moments like that -- when someone tells me to think of abstract people in the world who have very little--compared to myself who, relatively speaking, has a lot--I think of suffering. A thought that looks somewhat like the Unicef commercials on TV asking for donations, with poverty porn imagery, bony bodies, and sunken eyes. And that thought of other people's suffering never heals any sadness. It always intensifies it. 

Thinking to myself that there are people in the world who have less and suffer more than I do makes me feel horribly worse than just thinking to myself that I alone am suffering or that I alone have less than others (relatively speaking). I guess it's the logic that two wrongs don't make a right. That someone else's anguish-- no matter how much worse than mine -- doesn't mend my own. 

When I say "the cure for depression may be found in Cameroon," I'm not referring to any kind of suffering. I'm referring to the opposite. 

I found an abundance of joy in Cameroon--in a country where the majority of people have far less than me--but the majority of people are also far happier. At least it seemed so.

In Cameroon there is what most people living in the West would consider a lack. Most things that we take for granted as constants here in the States are irregular in Cameroon...unreliable. Nothing is all the time. Electricity and running water come and go as they please. If and when there is running water, it is usually cold and is always inedible. Internet and cell phone signals are spotty. Cell phones themselves are a gamble--sometimes they function, sometimes they don't, even when purchased new. Toilet paper and toilet seats are luxury goods. Most homes and cars don't have air conditioning. If a car has 5 seats, it almost always has 6 or 7...or 8...(once, 13) people stuffed inside. If a road is free of pot holes and craters, it's extremely decent. If a road is paved, it's decent and rare. 

Maybe Cameroon has more deficiencies in general than the United States...but when it comes to smiles, laughter, and what feels like genuine happiness...there is an abundance. 

Knowing there are people out there with very little who are suffering weakens morale. Knowing there are people out there with very little who are happy as they are is what builds it. It's true, there is a lot of suffering in the world--but the suffering of others doesn't help feel more sound about my own life. It's through knowing the happiness of others with significantly less that suddenly gives my life a bit more...

In Cameroon, there is often little to go around. What is considered standard or mediocre in the USA is often considered luxury there. And people acknowledge that they have less than a good portion of the world -- and nearly all of the West. But people smile on.