by Jay 

The Unlikely Antidepressant: A Story of a Farmer, a Cow, and True Healing

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In a quiet Cambodian village, a farmer’s life changed forever in a single, devastating moment.

One day, as he went about his usual routine in the rice fields, he stepped on a landmine left behind from the war.

The explosion took his leg—and with it, the rhythm of the life he had always known.

Doctors fitted him with an artificial limb, and after some time, he tried to return to the fields.

But the work that had once been second nature now felt impossible.

The pain of standing knee-deep in water with a prosthetic was relentless.

And it wasn’t just the physical agony—every step was a painful reminder of what he had lost, of the day his life was shattered.

The farmer withdrew.

He stopped going to the fields.

He cried constantly, refused to get out of bed, and shut out the world.

To those around him, it was clear: he wasn’t lazy or weak.

He was drowning in pain—both physical and emotional.

The local doctors didn’t see a man with a “chemical imbalance.”

They saw a man crushed by grief, loss, and despair.

So they did something remarkable.

They sat with him.

They listened to his story—not to diagnose, but to understand.

And then they made a plan.

If returning to the rice fields caused so much pain, maybe he didn’t have to go back.

Maybe he could build a different life.

Something meaningful.

Something healing.

Together with the community, they pooled their resources and bought the farmer a cow.

Just one cow.

But that cow changed everything.

With the cow, he didn’t have to endure the agony of the rice fields anymore.

He became a dairy farmer, selling milk, supporting his family, and—most importantly—reclaiming his sense of purpose.

The transformation didn’t take long.

Within weeks, his tears slowed.

He started getting out of bed.

Within a month, the depression that had consumed him began to lift.

The man who had been trapped in darkness was now moving forward—with hope, with purpose, with life.

Later, when the local doctors shared this story with Dr. Derek Summerfield, a visiting psychiatrist, he was baffled.

“What do you mean you didn’t give him antidepressants?” he asked.

The doctors smiled.

“Oh, we did,” they replied.

“The cow. The cow was his antidepressant.”

This story was shared by Johann Hari in his TED Talk, “This Could Be Why You’re Depressed or Anxious.”

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