BOSTON (AP) Neil Diamond posts a fireside rendition of Sweet Caroline with its familiar lyrics tweaked to say, Hands ... washing hands.
A news anchor asks when social distancing will end because my husband keeps trying to get into the house.
And a sign outside a neighbourhood church reads: Had not planned on giving up quite this much for Lent.
Are we allowed to chuckle yet? Wed better, psychologists and humourists say.
Laughter can be the best medicine, they argue, so long as its within the bounds of good taste.
And in a crisis, it can be a powerful coping mechanism.
Its more than just medicine, its survival, said Erica Rhodes, a Los Angeles comedian.
Even during the Holocaust, people told jokes, Rhodes said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Laughter is a symbol of hope, and it becomes one of our greatest needs of life, right up there with toilet paper.
Its a physical need people have. You cant underestimate how it heals people and gives them hope.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.
For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
Those are scary words and scary prospects.
But, history has shown that its heaviest moments are often leavened by using humour and laughter as conscious choices ways to cope when other things arent working as expected.
Theres so much fear and horror out there. All the hand washing in the world isnt going to clear up your head, said Loretta LaRoche, a suburban Boston stress management consultant whos using humour to help people defuse the anxiety the pandemic has wrought.
Some people will say this is not a time for laughter. The bottom line is, there is always a time for laughter, LaRoche said.
We have 60,000 thoughts a day and many of them are very disturbing. Laughter helps the brain relax.
That explains why social media feeds are peppered with coronavirus-themed memes, cartoons and amusing personal anecdotes.HeresDiamond posting a videoof himself singing Sweet Caroline with the lyrics altered to say: Hands ... washing hands ... dont touch me ... I wont touch you.
TheresFox News anchor Julie Banderas tweeting: How long is this social distancing supposed to last? My husband keeps trying to get into the house.
Heres Austin restaurant El Arroyo, still smarting economically from the outbreak-induced postponement of the South by Southwest music festival,turning its outdoor message board into a mock dating app: Single man w/TP seeks single woman w/hand sanitizer for good clean fun.
And over here, see novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, sharinga photo of herself eating lunch in her wedding dressafter her kids asked her to wear it and I couldnt think of a reason not to.
Take a breather:
For centuries, laughter in tough times has been cathartic, said Wayne Maxwell, a Canadian psychologist who has done extensive research on gallows humour.
The term originated in medieval Britain, where hangings took place in parks near pubs and patrons told jokes at the victims expense.
Even in some of the writings of ancient Egypt, there are descriptions of military personnel returning from the front lines and using humour to cope, said Maxwell, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
But, he warns, there exists a kind of comedy continuum: While humour can helpfully lighten things up, too much laughter and flippancy can signal a person is trying to escape from reality.
There are also questions of taste. No one wants to poke fun at medical misery or death.
Quarantining and social distancing, though, are fair game, and self-deprecating humour is almost always safe though LaRoche cautions that humour, like beauty, is always in the eye of the beholder.
It all depends on how your brain functions, she said.
Give yourself permission to find humour. Its almost like a spiritual practice, finding ways to laugh at yourself.
For those millions of parents struggling to work from home and teach their housebound children, shes preaching to the choir.
Witnessthis widely shared meme: a photo of an elderly, white-haired woman with the caption: Heres Sue. 31 years old, home schooling her kids for the last 5 days. Great job Sue. Keep it up.
Michael Knight, a 29-year-old musician and a caseworker for people with mental disabilities, has been breaking the tension by posting memes like: They said a mask and gloves were enough to go to the grocery store. They lied. Everyone else had clothes on.
It helps me decompress, said Knight, of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
It kind of offsets the paralyzing effects of the boogeyman that is the pandemic.
Rhodes, whos out more than $30,000 after three festivals and her first taped special were cancelled, is trying to see the humour in her own predicament.
She recently posted an iPhone video of herselfpretending to work a non-existent crowdon an outdoor stage she happened upon during a walk. Hows everyone not doing? she cracks.
The best material comes from a place thats very truthful and somewhat dark, Rhodes added.
Her prediction: When life eventually edges back to normal, Saturday Night Live and the latest Netflix stand-up specials will be powered by quarantine humour.
Just a month ago, who would have appreciated being given a roll of toilet paper? she said. I mean, the whole world is upside down.
Continue reading here:
COVID-19 coping mechanism: Laughter is the best medicine! - Loop News Jamaica
- Yes, But. The Annotated Atlantic. - November 7th, 2009 [November 7th, 2009]
- Health Insurance Benefit Costs by Region - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- For an Operator, Please Press... - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Pollyanna With a Pen: Maine Governor Signs 18 New Health Care Bills into Law - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- AMA Sounds the Alarm, Medicare Making Yet Another Attempt to Cut Reimbursement - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mass Governor Asks Blue Cross to Keep Higher Employer Contribution - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Lifespan and Care New England Plan Monopoly (Again) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dirigo Health: Con Artists, Liars, and Thieves? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New Orleans: Health Challenges - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- August a Flurry of Activity - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Maine's Dirigo Health Savings One-Third of Original Estimate - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- “Methodolatry”: My new favorite term for one of the shortcomings of evidence-based medicine - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Suzanne Somers’ Knockout: Dangerous misinformation about cancer (part 1) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A science-based blog about GMO - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A Not-So-Split Decision - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Military Medicine in Iraq - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The effective wordsmithing of Amy Wallace - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A Science Lesson from a Homeopath and Behavioral Optometrist - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Join CFI in opposing funding mandates for quackery in health care reform - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mainstreaming Science-Based Medicine: A Novel Approach - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Those who live in glass houses… - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- J.B. Handley of the anti-vaccine group Generation Rescue: Misogynistic attacks on journalists who champion science - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- When homeopaths attack medicine and physics - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The cancer screening kerfuffle erupts again: “Rethinking” screening for breast and prostate cancer - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- All Medicines Are Poison! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- When Loud Wins: Will Your Tax Dollars Pay For Prayer? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- It’s All in Your Head - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Skeptical O.B. joins the Science-Based Medicine crew - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Tragic Death Toll of Homebirth - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- What’s the right C-section rate? Higher than you think. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Recombinant Human Antithrombin – Milking Nanny Goats for Big Bucks - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Does C-section increase the rate of neonatal death? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Man in Coma 23 Years – Is He Really Conscious? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Why Universal Hepatitis B Vaccination Isn’t Quite Universal - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Ontario naturopathic prescribing proposal is bad medicine - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Naturopaths and the anti-vaccine movement: Hijacking the law in service of pseudoscience - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Institute for Science in Medicine enters the health care reform fray - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Neti pots – Ancient Ayurvedic Treatment Validated by Scientific Evidence - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Early Intervention for Autism - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- A temporary reprieve from legislative madness - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- A critique of the leading study of American homebirth - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Lose those holiday pounds - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Endocrine disruptors—the one true cause? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Evidence in Medicine: Experimental Studies - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Midwives and the assault on scientific evidence - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Mammogram Post-Mortem - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- An Influenza Recap: The End of the Second Wave - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The End of Chiropractic - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Cell phones and cancer again, or: Oh, no! My cell phone’s going to give me cancer! (revisited) - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Another wrinkle to the USPSTF mammogram guidelines kerfuffle: What about African-American women? - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Acupuncture, the P-Value Fallacy, and Honesty - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- The One True Cause of All Disease - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Communicating with the Locked-In - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Are the benefits of breastfeeding oversold? - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Measles - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Radiation from medical imaging and cancer risk - December 21st, 2009 [December 21st, 2009]
- Multiple Sclerosis and Irrational Exuberance - December 21st, 2009 [December 21st, 2009]
- Medical Fun with Christmas Carols - December 22nd, 2009 [December 22nd, 2009]
- Lithium for ALS – Angioplasty for MS - December 23rd, 2009 [December 23rd, 2009]
- “Toxins”: the new evil humours - December 24th, 2009 [December 24th, 2009]
- 2009’s Top 5 Threats To Science In Medicine - December 24th, 2009 [December 24th, 2009]
- Buteyko Breathing Technique – Nothing to Hyperventilate About - December 26th, 2009 [December 26th, 2009]
- The Graston Technique – Inducing Microtrauma with Instruments - December 29th, 2009 [December 29th, 2009]
- The “pharma shill” gambit - December 29th, 2009 [December 29th, 2009]
- Ginkgo biloba – No Effect - December 30th, 2009 [December 30th, 2009]
- Oppose “Big Floss”; practice alternative dentistry - January 1st, 2010 [January 1st, 2010]
- Causation and Hill’s Criteria - January 3rd, 2010 [January 3rd, 2010]
- The life cycle of translational research - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- The anti-vaccine movement strikes back against Dr. Paul Offit - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- Osteoporosis Drugs: Good Medicine or Big Pharma Scam? - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- Acupuncture for Hot Flashes - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- The case for neonatal circumcision - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- A victory for science-based medicine - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- James Ray and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- The Water Cure: Another Example of Self Deception and the “Lone Genius” - January 12th, 2010 [January 12th, 2010]
- Be careful what you wish for, Dr. Dossey, you just might get it - January 13th, 2010 [January 13th, 2010]
- You. You. Who are you calling a You You? - January 15th, 2010 [January 15th, 2010]
- The War on Salt - January 16th, 2010 [January 16th, 2010]
- Is breech vaginal delivery safe? - January 16th, 2010 [January 16th, 2010]