Things Could Always Be Worse

People today are always complaining about how bad they have it even though they don’t know how good they do. They say things like “I’m out of work, I lost my house, my wife left me to become a man.” That’s why we’ve compiled a list of real things that happened to other unfortunate souls to remind you that no matter how bad you have it- things could be worse! If you’re feeling blue about your dead dog and your pregnant teenage girlfriend, then read this!

18 Years at The Airport



Mehran Karimi Nasseri is an Iranian man who landed at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France seeking refugee status from Iran in 1988.. and after his briefcase was stolen with his passport and paperwork, he was NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE AIRPORT FOR 18 YEARS. He couldn’t return to Iran and he couldn’t enter any European country. So he had to sit in the airport Terminal in limbo.

You may think this story sounds familiar; that’s because the Tom Hanks' romantic comedy The Terminal was inspired by his story. However, Mehran’s outcome wasn’t so romantic; in 2006 he was finally allowed to leave the airport and was admitted to a hospital for an unspecified ailment. He now lives in a shelter. So no matter how much you hate your boss and going into work each day to that God awful “prison,” or how much you hate Delta for making you wait on the tarmac for twenty minutes,  just think of the plight of poor Mehran listening constantly to the roar of jets and the loud PA system announcements for “flights now boarding” that he would never, ever get on and meditate on sitting in the airport for 18 years.

Woman Loses Arms and Legs After Giving Birth

Katy Hayes of Texas gave birth to a healthy daughter and was doing fine until as a result of the pregnancy she contracted a rare flesh eating disease. In an effort to save her life doctors were forced to REMOVE ALL HER ARMS AND LEGS making her a quadruple amputee.

(This could be you.)

She woke up in the hospital after slipping in and out of a coma with no limbs and has three children including the newborn to care for. So the next time you complain about how far you have to walk while carrying your groceries from the car to your crappy third floor apartment without an elevator, watch this video and meditate on living without arms and legs.

Austrian Woman Trapped in Basement and Forced to have Her Father's Babies for 24 Years

At age 18, Elizabeth Fritzl was drugged and trapped in an underground dungeon her own father, Joseph Fritzl had constructed under his apartment complex. She spent the next 24 years imprisoned there while her father forced her to have his incestuous offspring, resulting in seven children, three of whom lived their entire lives in the basement dungeon until the eldest was taken to the hospital for medical attention in 2008.

(This isn’t your father!)

Authorities uncovered the heinous story, Joe Fritzl is locked up, and the “family” now lives in seclusion, with sensitivity to natural light from their years of imprisonment. So the next time you complain about what a crappy job your parents did with your upbringing just think that at least your father/grandfather didn’t rape your mom and imprison you for the first two decades of your life in a secrete basement dungeon where you NEVER went outside. Meditate on the above picture of Joseph Fritzl – he’s not your dad!

Farmer Gets The “Tree Man” Syndrome



A Romanian farmer named Ion Toader contracted Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, otherwise known as The Tree Man Syndrome. This debilitating disease leaves its victims with scaly, wooden like warts and growths all over the skin and body. Unlike the tree people in The Wizard of Oz and The Lord of The Rings, the reality of being a tree person isn’t very enchanting or magical. Essentially it makes the hands unusable and as a farmer Toader was left unable to use his tractor. Treatments for the condition can be tough and there is currently none that is one hundred percent effective. One Tree Man patient was given radiation therapy resulting in cancer. So the next time you complain about the mole on your cheek or how you hate your new fingernail polish, just meditate on the plight of poor Ion who has tree trunks for hands.

the people in this article suffered terrible hardship yet this was so insensitivly written. That's where my problem with this article lies.
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I'm with Miss Cellania - it's not like there was no warning what it was about.

Plus I for one have heard/read about all of these stories in the past, and i appreciated the compilation being treated with a little lightheartedness. Gets the point across (be thankful for what you have) without being as depressing as these illustrations really could be.
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It's not nice to point out others hardships. Like "Gee aren't you glad you're not this person." These are real people and some of them probably have access to the internet. Way to make them feel like shit. Your post sucks.
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You called Miss C "asshole"? Jeez, sorry for the FREE ENTERTAINMENT EVERY DAY.

While this post is not "neat", it's genuinely interesting, with a thoughtful message. And yes, pottymouth name-slinger, you had warning. Go back to reading your Family Circus collection or something.

Personally, when I get to feeling ugly or otherwise pathetic, I find that reading about medical conditions makes me feel better. I could have the hemifacial atrophy of Romberg's Disease, or the sheer horror of Noma, or any of a slew of craniofacial disorders. I doubt I'll ever obsess over crow's feet after those pictures...
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“"Forced to have Her Fathers Babies". It's not "Fathers", it's "Father's". It's possessive, not plural. She only has one father.”

I’m glad you cleared that up for us zavatone, otherwise we wouldn’t of had a clue. ;)
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Great post! The operative word being "meditate" or empathize to the extent that you and the person are indistinguishable. There is value in it and it is not insensitive to these people, it is the highest form of sensitivity to momentarily become the person.
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I appreciated this. After coming home from a semi-crummy day, it is such a good reminder that I shouldn't whine, when by comparison my life is pretty great.

These people have real hardships.
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@Leonardo:

"I’m glad you cleared that up for us zavatone, otherwise we wouldn’t of had a clue."

The proper spelling is "wouldn't HAVE had a clue".

Sure, we all knew what she meant, but if we lose our grammar skills, society generally falls apart.
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@leonardo:

Thank you, but I am no genius. I simply put into practice the rules that I learned in school, so as to avoid appearing foolish on the Internet.

Sometimes, I can even speak tongue-in-cheek, rather than resorting to sarcasm, which (according to Oscar Wilde, apparently) is the lowest form of wit.
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