They say laughter is the best medicine. I believe that humor is very important in recovery from stroke and especially when you have communication disorders that make you depressed and doubt your self worth. Getting to the point where I could not only see the bright side, but actually laugh again took me a while. (Even laughing at my mistakes has helped me. now I even tell people about laughing yoga.)
But what if laughing gets you into trouble or makes your life harder. Since the stroke I cry when I am happy and laugh at inappropriate times. I haven't been diagnosed with anything, but more than half the people who've had a stroke experience some level of PBA (Pseudo bulbar effect)
Right after I had the stroke I cried a lot. Crying is something that people would understand. Many things changed in my life. I couldnt do many things independently. I couldnt effectively share any thoughts and couldn’t express my needs.
But laughing at things that weren't at all funny or at times when I really needed to express myself has been irritating. The laughing is uncontrollable and not at all funny to those around me and hard on me, too.
When I was beginning to learn to speak out loud, I would laugh just before saying what I wanted. That was irritating but not hurtful or dangerous.
When I laughed uncontrollably when something bad happened to my husband, that was hurtful. I didn't think it was a funny situation. I think what was happening was the stress of the situation caused the laughter and my husband would get upset with me.
I also find this uncontrollable laughter could actually be dangerous. When I'm watching my granddaughter and she does something she shouldn't and I have to reprimand her (guide her actually ) I have this uncontrollable laughter. It’s not a laugh out loud kind of sound but more like a hiccup. When this happens, I can't say any words.... Kiera is too young to understand this and I'm afraid she will take the hesitation and laugh as a chance to think what she is doing is funny and alright to do. When I am finally able to speak I of course tel her what she did was not good or dangerous.
the last thing I want is for my daughter to not trust me to watch Kiera anymore, my time alone with her is so special, I need to find strategies that can help me minimize the laughter.
This speech was presented at the Finding Our Voice group on April 12th. I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to post it to my blog. If anyone has some suggestions as to what I could do to minimize this “unhelpful“ laughter, please let me know in the comments or by email.
until next time…
Very interesting, Cheryl. I haven't thought that laughter could cause problems before. But it has reminded me that I also laugh inappropriately when I'm nervous. It started when I was a child and a new immigrant. I didn't know English then so I laughed at everything. When I'm tired and not thinking I still do. How to stop? For myself, that would to me more mindful. When you have a neurological issue, I don't have any suggestions. Though it wouldn't hurt to be more mindful if you could.