Depression and anxiety are among the commonest health conditions in the world, they are treatable, and they are not a weakness of character or a spiritual failing. In Cameroon most people who have them never get treatment, and the usual reason is that nobody names it as an illness.
What depression actually looks like
- Low mood, or emptiness, most of the day, most days, for two weeks or more.
- Losing interest in things that used to matter.
- Sleeping badly, or sleeping far more than usual.
- Appetite and weight changing without trying.
- Tiredness that rest does not fix.
- Difficulty concentrating or deciding anything.
- Feeling worthless, or guilty about things that are not your fault.
- Aches, headaches or stomach problems with no physical cause found. Here, this is very often how it first presents.
What anxiety looks like
- Worry that will not switch off, about many things.
- A racing heart, sweating, trembling, tight chest or shortness of breath.
- Feeling on edge, irritable, unable to settle.
- Avoiding places or situations because of the fear.
- Sudden waves of intense fear with physical symptoms, sometimes mistaken for a heart problem.
What helps
- Talking to someone trained. Structured talking therapy works, and for mild to moderate depression it works as well as medication.
- Medication, where a clinician judges it useful. It takes two to four weeks to work, and it is not addictive.
- Daily movement. The effect on mood is real and measurable, not a platitude.
- Regular sleep and meals. Both are usually disrupted, and both feed back into the mood.
- People. Withdrawal deepens it; contact, even small amounts, works against it.
- Reducing alcohol. It relieves for an hour and worsens it over weeks.
Where to get help in Cameroon
Start at any health centre or district hospital; mental health care is part of general health services and a clinician there can assess you and refer. Regional and central hospitals in the larger towns have psychiatric services, and there are psychologists in private practice in Douala, Yaoundé and the regional capitals. Church and community organisations run counselling in many areas. If you do not know where to start, ask at your nearest health centre and say plainly what you are experiencing.
Get help urgently if
- You are thinking about ending your life, or about harming yourself. Go to a health facility today, and tell someone you trust now rather than later.
- Someone has said they want to die, or has started giving things away and settling affairs.
- You cannot eat, drink or get out of bed.
- You are hearing or seeing things others do not, or holding beliefs others around you find frightening.
- A new mother feels unable to care for her baby, or is frightened of her own thoughts about the baby.
- Confusion or a sudden change in behaviour in someone older, which is often a physical illness rather than a mental one and needs checking.
On what people say
Depression is not caused by being cursed, by a lack of faith or by not trying hard enough, and it is not something a person can simply decide to stop. Faith and family support genuinely help people through it; they work alongside treatment rather than instead of it. Telling someone to be strong is the one response that reliably makes it worse, because it adds shame to an illness.
If you are supporting someone
- Ask, and then listen without rushing to fix it.
- Asking directly whether someone is thinking of suicide does not put the idea there. It is one of the most useful things you can do.
- Help with the practical step: the appointment, the transport, going with them.
- Keep in contact. Repeated small contact matters more than one long conversation.
- Look after yourself as well. You cannot carry it alone.
