Living Laughter

Laughter is a medicine for the emotion of sadness and can lift the emotion out of the body and help the body produce serotonin. In the past, I used laughter to become beneficial to heal mental wounds through bad times. Previously laughing had helped when I got lost in life from a bad situation, after that a lifetime friend came to rescue the day with his powers. The only time laughter is helpful is when a family member, like a sibling or a friend like I had, comes and succeeds in turning the frown upside down. When a person is feeling down, the best remedy is to act funny in the hopes they start cheering up.

In the past, I had a moment where I felt sadness, and I was betrayed by someone close, and it broke many pieces of my own heart. The feelings I held were hatred and sadness, and I lost the will to do anything. When the one person who stayed ventured into his mind then came to my side and somehow the day turned went excitingly crazy, in a good way. A brilliant idea that he had was to “Why don’t we just jump off a bridge!!” and so he got some people together and jumped off a bridge. Well, to clarify it was bungee jumping, but it was still jumping off a bridge, and that helped cheer me up albeit I was still upset. When that did not work, he and the others had another so-called great plan, and it was required that I wear a blindfold while they went to the store. This plan ended up being the best there was because it was like a blast from the past and the whole neighborhood was involved. We had a war, a literal war from the old and elderly to a dog with a grenade with Nerf supplies. During the war, I got trapped with the buddy that organized this and his reaction to being trapped was “Well if I’m going to die might as well be from myself” and proceeded to use a Nerf pistol and shot himself. After finishing the war and coming in second place, I was laughing with a smile from ear to ear, and not because of the fun I had but the fact I had a friend that helped and cheered up the sad, pathetic version I showed.

People may say, “Laughter does not matter when someone is going through depression.” They may be true, but studies show “endorphins secreted by laughter can help when people are uncomfortable or in a depressed mood” (PubMed) so laughing can and does increase dopamine. Dopamine affects mental health, just like when I was feeling down but got better after a friend used laughter to increase my dopamine. The next time someone is crying I will and so should others try and create an atmosphere of laughter.

“Smiling cat” by nicolasconnault is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.