Depression Does Not Enter Where Good Humor Lives

One of the best therapies to eliminate depression is a sense of humor. Laughter serves to face pain and also cure diseases, by strengthening the immune system. Therefore, we must not stop smiling even if we are very sad! Some say “see a glass half full” to the situation, others be optimistic … but the truth is that laughing removes many evils.

Depression is one of the main reasons why a person decides to go to the psychologist for a consultation. Therapy can help to know the reasons for this state and offer the tools so that the sufferer can get out of it.

Depression does not go away if we reinforce it

This may be obvious if we read it, but not so obvious if we want to put it into practice. If we are depressed, we are more likely to add more sad and distressing feelings than pleasant emotions. Crying or lack of motivation is more frequent than laughter and energy.

But let’s try to change this. How? Keeping the good mood “through the roof.” Laughing at our problems is a great incentive. Many studies have shown that laughter has a direct influence on how we feel and the attitude we take to face difficulties. Arguably, it is an ingredient that works very well in all negative moods.

If, on the contrary, we reinforce depression, introducing ourselves into a kind of vicious circle, in which laziness and sadness do nothing but add even more sadness and laziness, it will be very difficult for us afterwards to jump that high that we have constructed. Let us remember that depression, more than an illness, is a state from which we cannot get out without an exercise of will that serves as a motor to start carrying out activities that in principle, we do not feel like anything.

Depression and illness

Being sad is not just a horrible feeling in the middle of the chest or a lump in the throat. It affects every plane of our body, including the mental and the spiritual. But it can also have negative consequences on our physical health. A depressed person is more vulnerable to getting sick and “catching” all the viruses that are swarming through the air.

It is common to have a cold, not being able to heal quickly from a wound, have pimpled skin… all because of being depressed. Not wanting to eat, pretending to sleep all day and lacking the energy to do any type of activity, sooner or later also affects our health. It is essential then that depression goes as far as possible if we want a strong and healthy immune system.

Depression and positive therapy

Once depression is determined or diagnosed, the next step is to find a technique that will solve or lessen the problem. In the area of ​​psychology there are many therapies that can help, such as “positive therapy” that tries to find all the beneficial resources for the patient.

For example, it is advisable to keep a “gratitude journal” where they write all the good things for which we should be grateful : family, partner, work, home, health, friends, etc.

In this gratitude journal it is best that we be as specific as we can in our annotations, so that we can complete them. For example, instead of writing that you are grateful “for having wonderful parents” it is much better to write that you are grateful “because you have a mother and / or father who listen to you and try to understand you.” So you can complete it with “I am grateful that they take care of me” or “that they ask me and are aware of me”.

The benefits of good humor and gratitude

Thus, a good mood and a feeling of gratitude are two potentially effective vaccines against depression. It will be much more complicated for us to fall into the vicious circle of which we spoke before if we have automated certain positive filters when observing the reality that most conditions our state of mind.

We have all been in the situation of looking at someone and being surprised by the humor with which they wear what seems like a deficit from the outside. It is these people, who accept what they cannot change and also caricature it, who best train their resilience in the face of low moments.

It is no longer that this attitude is good for them, which it is, it is that they also manage to reinforce the social circle of support they have. Not only is a sense of humor and optimism contagious, it also makes the time we spend with people who encourage it enjoyable.