It’s a Monday morning, a cold, rainy one. I’m slogging my way through work when I receive an email from G. Wayne Miller who is in search of a touch of humor, a quip or two, for a follow-up piece to “Laughter is a Medicine We Need Right Now” in the Providence Journal. I think about it for a nanosecond and tuck it away for later when my mojo kicks in, whenever that is.
That incident, however, got us thinking about laughter and whether it holds any value in the world of legitimate therapy and validated science. We also wanted to know if therapists provide laughing sessions for their clients and if so, how they go about it when their clients may be in no mood for anything funny.
What clinicians and therapists know is that humor is an essential coping tool for surviving tough times. Shared laughter gives us strength in adversity and can help us feel a bit more in control when the future looks uncertain. Laughter makes us stronger. Recent studies have found that a good laugh can boost our dopamine levels and even shore up our immune systems.
Obviously one person’s funny may be another person’s eye roll. It’s a matter of perspective of course. It also may seem a bit prosaic to analyze humor and laughter, especially because they are stimulus-reaction responses that on the surface appear to be cloaked in common sense. Someone sees or hears something funny. They laugh. Scientists have gone a few steps further, however, and identified two main types of laughter: spontaneous and induced. For example, listening to your favorite funny podcast, seeing someone else laugh, or getting tickled, may evoke laughter and have the additional benefit of reducing anxiety, taking away the dark and supplanting it with the light and present funny moment.
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One 2016 long-term study, “Humor-based online positive psychology interventions” by Pryor Wellenzohn published in the National Library of Medicine, was based on subjecting over 600 participants to five different forms of humor for a week at a time to determine which form resulted in improvements in overall mood. Participants reported that the humor intervention that created “enhanced happiness for three to six months” after the study was one that simply asked them to record three of the funniest events that they encountered during their day in their journals. Researchers in the 2020 American Medical Association journal echo the same sentiments: “Humor journals help build more skills and well-being.” This is not surprising, as research indicates that over 70 percent of humor occurs spontaneously in everyday life.
Induced humor, deliberately watching funny movies, looking for jokes and memes online, work, too. Dr. David Fessell in a JAMA Psychiatry article in June 2020 writes that a conscious approach to humor is helpful. He cites Ruch McGee’s 7 Habits Program in which McGee encourages his patients to find humor in the midst of stress, cultivate a playful attitude and begin to create verbal humor in their lives.
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Sometimes, however, certain types of humor can have the opposite effect on mental well-being. Excessive sarcasm, racist or sexist humor can bring about maladaptive reactions or destructive ways of dealing with situations in life. Highly aggressive, hateful or demeaning humor exacerbates the past and may instill violent behavior.
The pandemic unearthed a plethora of memorable and darkly humorous moments.
G. Wayne Miller’s Reporter’s Notebook offers what he dubs “a bit of buffoonery” when he compares Neanderthal to humans today. For example, Preferred Weapon-
Them: Spear; Us: Hand Sanitizer. Cleanliness-Them: Never clean (smells like, well, you know). Us: Never been cleaner (smells like Lysol). Funny jokes even coronavirus and quarantine jokes — bring us together and help us to feel connected.
While we obviously need to take COVID-19 very seriously and follow the recommendations from the CDC and WHO, we also need to laugh. We could all use a few moments in the day that feel lighter, and a well-timed pandemic joke might just take your mind off the emotional turmoil brought on by the pandemic. Meanwhile, the world around us serves as a reminder that there’s always something, however small, to smile about.
Here are a few that we found:
1. Not only do we have to worry about the new strains of the coronavirus, but the CDC has identified a new variant of the diarrhea bug. It runs in your jeans.
2. Whose idea was it to sing “Happy Birthday” while washing your hands? Now every time I go to the bathroom, my kids expect me to walk out with a cake.
3. I never thought the comment “I wouldn’t touch them with a six-foot pole” would become a national policy.
4. How did the health experts lie? They said a mask and gloves were enough to go to the grocery store. When I got there, everyone else had clothes on.
5. I finished Netflix today.
Jamie Lehane is president and CEO of Newport Mental Health in Middletown. Peace of Mind, which is co-written with Sandra Oxx, runs in The Daily News and online at newportri.com.
The Link LonkMarch 09, 2021 at 01:58AM
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PEACE OF MIND: How to add humor to your life when nothing is funny - newportri.com
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