Humor In Tough Times
When someone is going through a serious illness or highly stressful situation it is important to remember that they might be able to handle the big challenges, but seem to fall apart with some small insignificant thing. We work so hard coping with an illness or something catastrophic that when someone says something that would normally not bother us we get very upset.
The other day I was over at my mother’s house. She has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and is coping with it very positively. In fact we are using Laughter Therapy to help cope with this challenge. (see Laughter Therapy) And it has been very therapeutic for her and me. She has been making some pillows for my new home and I commented that she didn’t do as good a job on the last two as she had in the past. Mom took this personally and I could tell she was upset by the comment. Normally this would not upset her. I apologized for hurting her feelings.
Later I asked her if she had been watching the comedy videos I brought over for her. She said, “No, I haven’t needed them lately and I want to save them for when I really needed them.” I think she still needs to put the laughter in her life even when she doesn’t feel the stress of worrying about her illness. Waiting to get an appointment from the specialist is stressing her out even though she may not be conscious of its effects.
When going through tough times there will always be peaks and valleys, that’s part of life. How we cope with the valleys is determined by our attitude. We need to recognize the valleys and deal with them. Using humor to get thru the tough times will help as long as we aren’t in denial. You have heard the expression “grinning idiot’ I believe that is someone who is in denial. Don’t use humor to mask the problem. Use humor to cope with the problem.