Humor, laughter and smiling one of the greatest weapons of the chronically ill. For me, I have found this to be true anyway. It may not be medicine, medicine but it is a fine additive to medicine. I’ll take a dose everyday, thanks.
Smile on:
The mighty power of the smile is held in the fact that when you smile your brain thinks hey there must be a reason for that smile and so I should be happy…
“Facial feedback works because the brain senses the flexion of certain facial muscles (like the zygomatic major, which is required to smile) and interprets it as “Oh I must be happy about something.” Similarly, if that muscle isn’t flexed then your brain thinks, “Oh, I must not be happy”. In addition to the direct neural feedback, in the real world you also get the added advantage of social feedback. Smiles are infectious (perhaps another post on mirror neurons in the future). So even if you don’t feel much happier, the people around you are more likely to smile, and that can improve your mood as well.” (Psychology today)
And released endorphins even when the smile is forced. I never knew this but I knew that I could not go to work with a upside down smile. No one likes a downer, man. Bad for business. So I’d fake a smile, until I could really fake a smile, until the smile was real, or really faked. It does improve your mood. You want to be around happy people, you want to keep your mood up, you want to avoid negative people. Smiling is that first step. Goes a long way.
Humor:
In studies that evaluated patients’ pain after their exposure to comedy videotapes, the videos improved pain tolerance and reduced the need for pain medications. Humor may also have positive effects on heart disease, diabetes, blood flow, and depressive symptoms.
Those of us with chronic illnesses we have our chronic illness humor don’t we? And I love all that. We should be able to joke about the nuances of our illness… it relieves some of that tension. I love them. Love to share them. Helps us relate to each other else as well. All humor is important in our lives. But ‘sick’ humor has a place as well. It is not all doom and gloom… and a billion inspiration quotes. I joke about my illness all the time. It makes it less stressful to me and to my spouse. Makes it easier on others. But sick humor amongst ourselves are the things we get and can laugh about because we all ‘get it’
Laughter:
Laughter itself is to be encouraged at all times. I have used humor as a coping mechanism and a facade in the workplace. I liked to make others laugh and smile so I could laugh and smile. By joking around I could boost my mood and mask my pain better as well. I like also to seek hour humor. I enjoy laughing. I enjoy being goofy. I enjoy watching shows that will make me laugh. Books that will make me laugh. People that will make me laugh. I always say it is a mood enhancer. If you don’t focus on the pain and use laughter it gives the brain the happy drugs it wants which boosts the mood, despite the pain. So I seek it out and create it when I can. This is only possible in the mid-range of my pain. The higher ranges I have more problems, but with my spouse I will still have our little jokes.
Stress relief from laughter mayoclinic.com
A good sense of humor can’t cure all ailments, but data are mounting about the positive things laughter can do.
Short-term benefits
Laughter can:
- Stimulate many organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
- Activate and relieve your stress response. A laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response and increases your heart rate and blood pressure. Causing a good, relaxed feeling.
- Soothe tension. Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, reducing stress.
Long-term effects
Laughter may:
- Improve your immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. Positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses.
- Relieve pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers. Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders.
- Increase personal satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It can also helps you connect with other people.
- Improve your mood. Laughter can help lessen your depression and anxiety and make you feel happier.
TIME FOR SOME HUMOR
You know you have fibromyalgia when…
… your desire for sleep is much like a quest for the holy grail, you really want it but you’re not sure it exists.
… when you don’t remember what it feels like to not be in pain.
… not only is your bowel irritable, your whole dang body is.
… you forgot how you were going to finish this sentence, but it would have been witty.
… when not only do you forget the day of the week, you forget what year it is and then are rather surprised when you find out. Did you maybe just skip a year somewhere that you don’t remember. Maybe.
… when your memory is so poor you can’t ever win an argument about something you supposedly did at such and such a place, because you don’t even remember being there. Since you don’t remember it, clearly it did not happen. Unless three other people verify that it did, in which case you can then reluctantly agree it might have happened.
… when getting out of bed is considered a victory worthy of mentioning.
… when any symptom of any sort can be classed as fibromyalgia and going to the doctor then becomes rather redundant.
… when you consider massage therapy to be a unique form of torture.
Signs the pain is getting the best of you
– You have decided to hibernate for the winter.
– When all your social interactions come via Facebook, TikTok and X.
– When people say they sometimes get pain like that when it rains and you want to choke them.
– When you spend all night tossing and turning, trying to find that exact position that does not cause pain and fail.
– When leaving the house to run an errand is an event worth celebration.
– When getting out of bed and getting dressed is an event worth celebration.
-When an event worth celebration occurs you do a happy jig… and immediately regret that.
– When you fall down you decide to just lay there for a bit contemplating your existence.
– When you realize you have not left the house for a week… and you are all good with that.
You know you have a chronic illness when…
-You rate your pain by ‘baseline’, ‘functional’ and ‘non-functional’.
-You rate your fatigue by ‘still conscious’, ‘unable to be upright’ and ‘capable of movement’.
-You know more than your doctor about your illness and possibly Google at this point. You actually corrected Chat GPT about your illness facts. Get it right!
-Someone tells you ‘But you look fine’ and you throat punch them.
-You can sleep 12 hours and still feel like you stayed up for 48.
-You have a relationship with Netflix.
-You refuse to go to the ER until things get extreme, by your definition of extreme.
-You have met at least one doctor with a ‘its all in your head’ or ‘its stress’ pretending to listen to you and then brushing you off.
-You were profoundly relieved at diagnoses to only then realize this is freaking Chronic.
Chronically Nikki 
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