Webs, Weeds and Wisdom |

I have known for decades that I have a tendency to laugh at inappropriate times – I remember getting into serious trouble in primary school because I laughed when being berated by the teacher for some minor misdemeanour. I also cracked a joke when helping the nursing sister to prepare my darling husband for the funeral parlour – the nurse was horrified and I could not explain myself on the spur of the moment or I would have fallen in a heap.

It’s not that I don’t know when society expects me to laugh or when to cry – it’s something over which I have no control when something happens which affects me in a negative way. I have thought at times that perhaps it’s psychological and I have an ‘off’ sense of humour.

But I now know that it is undoubtedly a self-defence mechanism called ‘nervous laughter’ and it is quite common – so I am not alone. Laughter increases your pain threshold and sends endorphins shooting through your veins. These pain-relieving chemicals are created in response to exercise, excitement, pain, spicy food, love and sexual orgasm, and also, among other things, they give us a ‘buzz’, raising our ability to ignore pain.

This may explain why some psychologists classify humour as one of the ‘mature’ defence mechanisms which we invoke to guard ourselves against overwhelming anxiety. Being able to laugh at traumatic events in our lives doesn’t cause us to ignore them but instead seems to help us to endure them. Perhaps also, by extension, being able to laugh at a trauma signals both to ourselves and others that we believe in our ability to endure - it makes us feel that everything will be alright.

I am off to the denture clinic tomorrow so everything will be alright after I’ve paid the bill – ha ha!