On the downside, however, substances can strip them of their creativity and burn out their brilliance. Throughout history, brilliance has been synonymous with mental illness. What better way to provide yourself with a quick fix to your impossibly deep sorrow than to orchestrate the twinkling sound of laughter in a otherwise silent room?
The effects of making another person laugh make you feel instantly better -- and the results are addictive. Sad people make careers out of making us laugh. Sadness is connected to feeling isolated. A comedian has learned that one of the ways to fill the black holes of depression -- is to connect. To talk about the pain and learn we're, indeed, not alone. People who are funny fearlessly talk about their most embarrassing moments, shameful thoughts and hard-to-swallow realities of their lives; and we laugh.
We laugh because we can relate. Because in the moment a comedian tells us a joke or story -- we are less alone in our suffering and our peals of laughter provide them with direct validation that we've been there too. By Zara Barrie. All of the aforementioned have suffered through the devastating pitfalls of depression. August 11, was a day I will never forget. Paula Thomson notes that these individuals were more likely to display personality qualities that are conducive to humor, such as the ability to quickly respond to situations with wit and frankness.
She believes this is tied to resilience, a personality quality characterized by the ability to recover from adversity. A large body of research suggests that resilience acts as a buffer for pain and this quality is strongly associated with creativity.
She notes that many other variables also contribute to the capacity to cope in this way, like social support, secure attachment, exposure to humor, and intelligence. Nancy Irwin agrees that resilience may be the secret ingredient for turning sad kids into funny adults, but notes that the type of trauma matters. Specifically, people who experienced some level of abandonment or neglect are especially drawn to humor as a way of psychologically reconciling it.
Feeling invisible was my assessment for a large percentage of these cases. Good-naturedly recounting that time you spilled red wine all over the tablecloth at a fancy dinner would certainly apply. Aggressive humor is, well, laughing at the expense of others. It often involves sarcasm, teasing, ridicule and criticism. Self-defeating humor is the art of putting yourself down to gain approval from your peers.
In other words, making yourself the butt of the joke. For example, this type of humor might be used by someone who's targeted by bullies — effectively pre-empting the mockery of themselves before it's inflicted by someone else.
Your unique sense of humor is likely a blend of these four styles, but many people tend to lean in a particular direction. You can even see for yourself which type you gravitate toward. And each style carries its own advantages, and disadvantages, when it comes to mental health. Julie Aitken Schermer, a psychological researcher at The University of Western Ontario, says that humor that is self-focused, adaptive and positive — otherwise known as self-enhancing — can be a particular psychological boon.
Beyond that, people who use self-enhancing humor are less likely to show signs of depression, loneliness and poor relationships with others. By contrast, both aggressive and self-defeating humor styles can signal trouble. Perhaps the boldest among this cohort are those who talk about that most stigmatized of mental health treatments: hospitalization. At one point, Gethard describes how he worried about the effect medication might have on his ability to write and tell jokes, and how much time he wasted on these unfounded fears.
He goes on to rebuke anyone who might romanticize the idea that pain and suffering are essential to great art. Beyond the tens of millions of Americans who have anxiety or major depressive disorders, 7. And yet it generally remains taboo to talk about it at work, on a date, at a family gathering, and in most other social situations. And so, in recent years, I have watched with appreciation as certain segments of society have become more outspoken about these issues. Not every comedian has won the battle with their demons.
And certainly the comedy world has had its share of men who have caused distress and trauma in others. Looking at you, Louis C. But still, no public figure or profession rivals comedians for speaking out about mental illness and helping to chip away at our public denial. And perhaps it makes sense that these folks would lead the way, given their tendency to both aggressively mine their own experiences for material and take aim at things most of us are afraid to talk about.
They can finally exhale in relief, and that exhale comes out as a laugh. I have never been further from a laugh, or even a smile, than when I was in the throes of a panic attack or deep depression. The symptoms of mental illness are, if nothing else, suffocatingly serious. To be mentally unwell is to helplessly fixate on the least funny things imaginable: death, disease, shame, guilt, self-loathing, vivid images of horrible things happening to me or my loved ones.
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