Last update: May 14, 2016
One of the best therapies for eliminating depression is a sense of humor. Laughter helps to cope with pain and cure diseases, to strengthen the immune system. For this reason, we must not stop smiling, even when we are very sad! Some say that this attitude is like "seeing the glass half full", others say it is being optimistic, the sure thing is that laughing keeps many evils away.
Depression is one of the main reasons why a person decides to go to a psychologist. Therapy can help to know the reasons for this condition and offer the tools for those who suffer from it to get out of it.
Depression doesn't go away if we strengthen it
It may seem obvious, but it isn't when we want to put it into practice. If we are depressed, we are more likely to amplify sad and distressing feelings more than pleasant emotions. Crying or demotivation are more frequent than laughter and energy.
But let's try to change. How? Keeping the good mood skyrocketing! Laughing at our problems is a great incentive. Many studies have shown that laughter directly affects our mood and the attitude we adopt in dealing with difficulties. We could say that it is an ingredient that works very well in all negative moods.
If, on the contrary, we reinforce the depression, we enter a kind of vicious circle in which laziness and sadness do nothing but add to other laziness and sadness, so it becomes very difficult to jump or cross that high wall we have built.. Let's not forget that depression, more than a disease, is a state from which one cannot leave without a willpower that acts as an engine to start carrying out activities that, at the beginning, do not inspire us at all.
Depression and illness
Being sad isn't just a horrible feeling in the middle of your chest or a lump in your throat. It affects every part of the body, including the mental and spiritual. It can also have negative consequences on our physical health. A depressed person is more likely to get sick and attract all the viruses that swarm in the air.
It is common to catch a cold, to not be able to heal quickly from a wound, to have skin full of pimples. Not wanting to eat, wanting to sleep all day, not having the energy to do any activity are conditions that sooner or later have a negative impact on our health. So it is essential to stave off depression as much as possible if we want our immune system to remain strong and healthy!
Depression and positive therapy
Once depression is determined or diagnosed, the next step is to find a technique that solves or reduces the problem. In the field of psychology there are many therapies that can be of help, such as "positive therapy" which tries to identify all the resources that can be good for the patient.
For example, positive therapy recommends writing a "gratitude journal" in which to write all the good things you are grateful for: family, partner, home, health, friends, etc.
In this diary of gratitude, the best thing is to show yourself as concrete as possible in the notes, so that you can complete them later.. For example, instead of writing about being grateful for "having wonderful parents", it is better to write about being grateful for "having a father and / or mother who listen to me and try to understand me." Then you can complete this entry with "I thank my parents for taking care of me" or "because they ask for my opinion and take me into consideration".
The benefits of good humor and gratitude
A good mood and a feeling of gratitude are two potentially effective vaccines for fighting depression. It will be much more complicated to fall into the vicious circle we were talking about before if we automate certain positive filters when we have to observe the reality that most conditions our state of mind.
We have all lived the experience of looking at someone and being surprised at the good humor with which they endure what appears to be a deficit from the outside. It is these people who accept what they cannot change, to caricature it, to train resilience in the face of dark times.
It is not that this attitude is valid only for them, in fact they manage to strengthen the social circle on which they count. A sense of humor and optimism are not only contagious, but they make the moments we spend with the people who foment them enjoyable.
