I struggled with understanding that I was depressed.  I love to laugh.  I see the absurdity of the World and myself and laugh often.  My medical doctor said I was depressed and didn’t know it.  His opinion baffled me.  During counseling that little mystery was cleared up.  My therapist asked me if I ever felt angry and did nothing about it.  Every day.  That is a form of depression.  Using the emotion depression to stop the raging anger I felt often.  Many sessions of counseling we talked about what I felt and anger was top of the list because it is easy to recognize.  However, we also laughed too.  Part of every session we were laughing about something.  I sometimes wondered if my counselor was a comedian wanna-be.  Reality is humans connect through humor.  Jokes are exchanged on emails and Facebook.  One of my earlier 1997 email experiences was an online snowball fight that had so many emails flying back and forth it brought down the email server for the district.  A flyer came in our mailboxes to cut out the snowball fight.  It was hilarious.  People connected, we had fun, and that is not allowed at school.  I first encountered the idea of laughter as a healing agent when I read Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousin.  https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Illness-Perceived-Twentieth-Anniversary/dp/0393326845

One of the movies I was required to watch for counseling was Patch Adams.  https://www.amazon.com/Patch-Adams-Collectors-Robin-Williams/dp/B00000IQV7/ A doctor that recognized the value and healing affect of humor.  Over and over again I learned that humor makes hard stuff doable.

Another important aspect of humor is it helps people to connect with each other.  Shared laughter with someone brings healing.  I also know the painful side of being laughed at.  There is a significant difference.  I came across an article that shares about a group called Clowns without Borders that bring laughter to refugee camps.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/peter-fonagy/comedy-mental-health_b_11262496.html

They draw the conclusion that shared healing laughter brings people together and helps them connect when everything else is tearing them apart.

You can find videos online of people laughing on a train or subway and the laughter spreads some are hilarious.

This morning I was almost late for work because I was watching a silly video on Facebook about ducks.  I hope the link works for you.  https://www.facebook.com/teamcoco/videos/1764730413585833/

Start your Engines