Laughter and Recovery

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It should be to no ones surprise that laughter is helpful in combating depression.  That is to say if you loose your ability to laugh you have lost one of the most precious gifts in the fight against depression.  Laughter has the ability to break the link with depressive feelings and to provide an avenue for reframing the thoughts that run through our mind.  This emotion has been studied in recent years and its therapeutic effects are for real.  The phenomenon of laughter and humor received a lot of attention in 1979 when Norman Cousins published his book The Anatomy of an Illness in which he talks about the body’s ability to recover from illness and how it is related to the mental attitudes of the person.   Laughter was further examined in 2001 when Robert Provine, PhD, wrote his book Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.  In the book Provine examines the multiple sources of laughter, gender differences, and the physiological process that take place when laughter occurs.  The author concludes that laughter may indeed have some therapeutic properties and should be studied further.

One of the dark sides of depression is when an individual is unable or can’t seem to find the outlets for humor.  Deep clinical depressions can zap the ability to enjoy this internal mechanism that is important for all of us in dealing with day to day life and stress.   Laughter is a self soothing, mood altering experience and brings forth joy, happiness, delight and bliss.    Laughter is also a physical experience where and individuals blood pressure and heart rates comes down and endorphins, the brains natural painkillers are release. 

Finally, laughter is a huge factor in socialization.  Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone, is a well know saying that is actually the opening lines of the 1883 poem, “Solitude”.  This opening line remains in our language because of the fierce truth behind it.   Laughing with others illuminates our shared experience or problems and enhances our sense of belonging which is so important in fighting depression.  Depression closes us off from these normal daily experience and interactions.  The lack of social interaction when depressed leads to further isolation and is fuel for this illness.

Do whatever you need to find that moment in the day where the possibility for laughter may exist.  It may be “sophisticated humor” that only a few of us get or old time slap stick reruns of the Stooges; but find that place where the weight of your depression can lift for a moment and some inward door opens and shows what your life may be like when your depression is in remission.