The Antidepressant Survival Guide by Robert J. Hedaya M.D

Author:Robert J. Hedaya, M.D. [Hedaya, Robert J., M.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77962-5
Publisher: Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony
Published: 2011-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

LAUGHTER AS A TONIC FOR DEPRESSION

Humor is a therapeutic form of verbal play. My most enduring and fond memories of childhood and family are all centered on humor, a facility with which we have all been blessed. Both in my personal life and in my psychiatric practice, I’ve come to appreciate humor as a creative and healing force.

People who are stressed or depressed often lose their ability to laugh or find situations humorous. Everything becomes serious, and thinking becomes negatively charged on every level. This is partially because depression reduces the blood flow to those regions of your brain that are able to make associations between incongruous concepts that are normally not connected. For instance, in an episode of Seinfeld, Kramer decided to invent the man-ssiere, a bra for men. To appreciate the humor of this premise, your brain’s cortex (the region of higher thought processes) needs to link quickly two previously unconnected concepts, which don’t belong in the same word: bras for men.

Using positron-emission tomography (PET), researchers have been able to document a decreased blood flow to the cortex in the brains of depressed patients. Studies have also shown that antidepressants can restore the blood flow to the cortex, so you can once again experience the lighter side of life. And the more you laugh, the more you activate the dopamine pleasure pathways that became dormant when you were depressed. Laughter works its magic by triggering your brain’s release of a multitude of pleasure-enhancing chemicals; dopamine activity increases in parts of your limbic system—a key emotional center in your brain—with feelings of exhilaration and happiness, while endorphins can actually numb physical and emotional pain. In fact, research has found that the very act of forming a smile can make you feel relaxed and happy by transmitting nerve impulses from the facial muscles to your brain to tilt your neurochemical balance toward happiness.

Laughter has another benefit: It can provide an immediate release from built-up tension—much in the way that relaxation exercises can. Do you ever remember laughing uncontrollably when, according to authority figures, you were supposed to be serious (in class, or even at a funeral)? The more you were supposed to ignore the subject, the more you wanted to laugh! Charles Darwin viewed laughter as a means of discharging surplus tension. He believed that laughter restores equilibrium and stimulates circulation to create a sense of well-being. Several studies suggest that laughter can help alleviate phobias and other anxiety disorders and reduce pain, and some psychologists use it as a form of psychotherapy. In the movie Patch Adams, Robin Williams portrays a real-life doctor who wears clown makeup and a red, bulbous nose to entertain his patients. “Humor is the antidote to all ills” is a phrase he often repeats.

I worked with a patient named Barbara who was suffering from depression. Antidepressants weren’t working fully to alleviate her fears of dying young. At every therapy session this thirty-five-year-old single mother discussed her fears in detail, though she intellectually understood them to be groundless.

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