Anybody here watch the final presidential debate? There were some nervous laughs to be had, and perhaps a few sarcastic chortles, but for the most part, things were deadly serious. As COVID-19 cases climb, former Vice President Biden predicted “a dark winter” while President Trump said “we’re learning to live with” the coronavirus. Unfortunately, many physicians, emergency personnel, and essential workers have been living with COVID-19. Some have gotten sick, and others have even died from it. Many of these professionals will carry hidden scars, in the forms of PTSD and trauma, from what they have seen and experienced. The pandemic would be bad enough in isolation, but it has taken place against a backdrop of civil unrest, racial injustice, and a battered economy. 2020 has been a humorless year, but research shows that some laughter may be precisely what we need. Humor has many proven physical and psychological benefits. So study up, and cue up a good stand-up special on your streaming service of choice. Dark humor Spend enough time in a physicians’ lounge and you’ll realize that doctors can have a pretty twisted sense of humor. And research suggests that they absolutely should. Dark humor among physicians may be essential as many contend with the demands of providing care during a devastating pandemic. A 2010 article published in the Journal of Loss and Trauma looked at research on dark humor among emergency personnel and concluded that it is “not only almost universally utilized … but that it is vital to their profession,” researchers wrote. “In stressful life-and-death situations, individuals use black humor as a method of venting their feelings, eliciting social support through the development of group cohesion, and distancing themselves from a situation, ensuring that they can act effectively.” Physicians and other emergency personnel may be tapping into humor for its potency as a coping strategy. For example, researchers noted that police officers working difficult child abuse cases will often use dark humor “to serve as a buffer to internalizing the children’s traumatic experiences” so that they can continue “to function in an empathetic yet detached manner.” The researchers conclude that dark humor as an essential defense mechanism for those who must do difficult work in emergency situations. “From a cognitive coping perspective, it allows individuals confronted with horrifying situations to create an emotional distance that both protects their emotional state and permits concentration on the important tasks at hand.” Learning and laughter Humor isn’t just beneficial for doctors on the frontlines. It may also be helpful for physicians-in-training. Think back to med school, doctor. Pretty stressful, right? A 2011 study published in the Online Journal of Health and Allied Sciences tells us that some humor would have gone a long way to reduce feelings of stress, as well as anxiety and depression. This randomized, controlled study involved 90 medical students. The students were divided into two groups. Lectures for the experimental group included humor as an intervention while the control group’s lectures did not. After the first and fourth lectures of the term, researchers asked students to report their levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. The control group’s levels of severe and extreme stress increased by 7%; anxiety increased by 3.66%; and depression increased by 1.13%. Let’s compare that with the group that received the humor intervention. Self-reported severe and extreme stress went from 13.5% to 0%. Anxiety levels dropped from 23.68% to 2.27%. Finally, depression stood at 18.41% and dropped to 0% after the fourth lecture. Can you imagine reporting no severe stress in medical school? Seems like the class clown should really be the professor. Laughing through illness Medical school may feel like life or death, but the majority of students survive. When facing life-threatening conditions, many patients contend with heightened feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety. It turns out that laughter may help here as well. Breast cancer patients face high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, in addition to the physical discomforts of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and the pain of mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. A 2015 pilot study published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine shows that laughter may help ease these psychological burdens. Of 60 breast cancer patients, 31 received four therapeutic laughter program (TLP) sessions. “The program consisted of periods of loud, prolonged laughter together with information about the effects of the TLP.” According to the study’s supplementary materials, TLP involved no joke-telling. It consisted of an icebreaker, program introduction, a warm up, and then different types of laughing in isolation — a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach. It turns out, it worked. Researchers measured anxiety, depression, and stress using an 11-point numerical rating system. Compared with the control group, which showed no change, the patients who received laughter therapy reported reductions of 1.94, 1.84, and 2.06 points in anxiety, depression, and stress, respectively. Furthermore, the effect seemed to be immediate. Researchers reported significant decreases in all three categories after the first session. Need some laughs? If you’re sold on putting some more levity into your life, but don’t know where to start, we have a few suggestions. For the dry and sarcastic: If you’re a sports fan, try Eastbound and Down, the story of Kenny Powers, a boorish baseball player whose best days are behind him. Enjoy music? You might like Flight of the Conchords — two folk-singing Kiwis trying to make it in the big city. Finally, you might enjoy the classic Larry David cringe comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Think of it as a more awkward Seinfeld. For fans of standup: If you like a little bit of raunch mixed with deadpan delivery, you’ll love Tom Segura’s standup specials. Just make sure the kids are asleep first. Segura’s wife, Christina Pazsitzky is just as hilarious. You also can’t go wrong with Chris Rock’s latest special, as well as John Mulaney’s political humor. For fans of absurdity: Check out the bizarre, slapstick antics of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Their star-studded Awesome Show features a bizarre cast of misfits, blundering through life with the sound effects cranked up a little too high. The duo’s more recent show, Beef House, is a riff on some beloved sitcoms of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. TL;DR Laughter has some proven healing and stress-busting benefits: Don’t feel bad about gallows or black humor, doctor. Research shows that it’s an essential buffer from trauma. It helps you cope with difficult situations and enables you to focus on the task at hand. A 2011 study showed that humor lowered self-reported stress, anxiety, and depression among a group of 90 medical students. In 2015, a pilot study among breast cancer patients showed that simply laughing in a therapeutic program, unprompted by jokes or external sources of humor, helped significantly lower feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. The effect was immediate after one session. Source
