Why PTSD Makes Me Laugh

How Vietnam War POW’s used humor to find control…

About 566 Vietnam War prisoners of war (POW) were extensively studied 25 years after they were returned home in 1973. *

Medical and psychological tests were run and around 300 of them were found to have little to no mental, emotional, or social problems.

How did 300 out of 566 POW’s come out seemingly unscathed?

How were they able to make it through such extreme situations?

The prisoners stated themselves that it was…

Humor.

Humor allowed the POW’s to take back control.

They may not have been in control while in the camps, but they were still in control of their minds.

And humor was how they fought back and gained that control.

The POW’s actually taught each other how to use the humor as a weapon to fight back against their captors.

They intentionally looked for ways to find humor and share it will the others.

Here’s what a few of the men said…

“Believe it or not, even under the almost worst of conditions over there, under the right circumstances, we could laugh.”
“The first five months I didn’t have a sense of humor. I was having great difficulty finding anything very funny about the situation, and then I discovered by living with other people and the way we interacted, that we eventually started being awfully funny.”
“Humor allows you to get up every morning and think this isn’t the end of the world, so one’s sense of humor is pretty critical.”

It acted as a glue that bonded the men together so they could build strength and resilience to their experiences.

The POW’s reported that they used internal humor within their own minds, as well as external humor that was shared with the group.

It was an inner and outer game for them.

The lack of mental, emotional, and medical problems for those 300 men is something that you can’t ignore.

This proves that humor is essential when going through hard times, and also that you can find humor in the darkest situations.

It is possible to find humor and things to laugh about when going through PTSD.

And it might even be the one thing that gets you through it.

How Holocaust survivors used humor to boost morale…

“We kept our morale through humor.”

This is a simple quote from Emil Fackenheim, a philosopher and holocaust survivor from Auschwitz…

Yet again, this shows you that even in the darkest of times humans are able to find humor to lift up spirits…

Another survivor of Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl describes that he and a fellow prisoner would tell each other a funny story everyday in his book “A Man’s Search For Meaning”,

(This is a great book, but it has extremely dark firsthand experiences from the holocaust and it is not recommended for people recovering from PTSD due to the graphic details).

They would make up funny stories about things that might happen after they were freed. They used humor to help cope with their current reality without going absolutely insane.

It doesn’t matter what situation you’re in right now, you can find the good, and you can look at the horrible things you’re experiencing and laugh at it.

You can show it that you are not a slave to it, and that you can control it.

Learn from Emil and Viktor and keep up your morale through humor.

How to bring humor to PTSD

You’ve learned that it is possible to find laughter even in the darkest of times.

Now you need to take that information and bring it to life.

Here’s a recap of all the reasons why you need to laugh at your PTSD…

Laughter gives you control – Laughter is something no one, and nothing can take away from you. It takes the control away from your PTSD and gives it back to you. When you find the humor in your dark moments you are fighting back and winning.
Laughter makes you resilient – Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Laughing allows you to recover quicker from negative experiences, and it generates mental toughness.
Help others laugh – Humor and laughter is more powerful in groups, and laughter is infectious. When you can bring laughter to others you are lifting everyone up. The benefits of laughter can be gained from something as small as a smile. So think of ways that you can bring laughter to every single moment.

How to expand your humor and bring it to everyday life…

Look for ways to make others laugh wherever you go
Take a “humor break” every day – watch videos that make you smile, joke around with a friend, etc…
Stay around happy positive people, and cut out all the negative ones
Avoid negative inputs like news, TV, conversations, etc. Anything that makes you feel worse.
Build a habit of always looking for the silver lining – Keep reminders wherever you go, on your phone, walls, everywhere…
Remember these stories and constantly remind yourself that laughter in the face of darkness is possible

Learn from the ones before us who have gone through horrible things.

They were able to find the light despite all the darkness.

Use their stories as inspiration to keep pushing forward towards a brighter, happier, and funnier future.

Did you find this post helpful?

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See you there 🙂

To your recovery!

– Kayleen

Notes:

*Humor – International Journal of Humor Research, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages 83–94, ISSN (Online) 1613-3722, ISSN (Print) 0933-1719, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.14.1.83.

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