Joking is useful: a sense of humor as a natural antidepressant

It is common knowledge that people with a good sense of humor can easily join any team, be the soul of a company, meet new people.

In itself, a sense of humor is associated with high intelligence, natural charisma and good character.

According to recent research, sense of humor – it is also the most important criterion for mental health.

Why joking is good for and how a good sense of humor helps "strengthen" of the human psyche, - the psychiatrist, psychotherapist Alexander Avdeev spoke about this and many other things.

• Violation of the sense of humor may indicate a mental disorder
• Sense of humor and human character: is there a relationship
• Improving your sense of humor can increase your resilience
Is it possible to develop a good sense of humor on your own
Violation of the sense of humor may indicate a mental disorder

Sure. Sense of humor – one of the most important indicators of mental health, and if there are difficulties with understanding or writing jokes, then the problem probably lies in one of these three areas. We view humor as a mental process that is the result of the joint work of the intellectual, emotional and social spheres.

 There are a number of mental disorders in which the ability to think abstractly and logically is impaired. As a result, it becomes simply impossible to understand, and, consequently, to synthesize jokes. For example, conditionally, if you ask a person suffering from schizophrenia what is funny in a joke: “did the bun hang itself?”, he will answer “because it is bread, and bread cannot hang itself.”

Humor also directly depends on the maturity of the cerebral cortex, and in violations associated with its inhibition, we also notice changes in the

quality of humor. Follow us on

Telegram

Sense of humor and human character: is there a relationship

 Yes, there is a certain relationship between favorite joke topics and personality traits. It is believed that people who are prone to demonstrative behavior prefer to joke a little vulgarly. At the same time, psychopathic personalities joke while manipulating other people. Well, for people prone to various paranoias, and jokes, as you might have guessed, are "suspicious"; – about the persecution of innocent victims.

Of course, it is not worth diagnosing

after a bad joke, but it is quite interesting to trace the general trend in such cases.

Instagram. Improving your sense of humor can increase your resilience

There is scientific evidence that people who work in the field of comedy have qualitatively changed those areas of their brain that are responsible for critical thinking and empathy.

those same areas of the brain are affected in patients with anxiety-depressive disorders. So I dare to suggest that regular humor training can actually increase stress resistance by activating those areas of the cerebral cortex that previously functioned little.

By the way, the practice of training a sense of humor in the treatment of mental disorders has been successfully used in the United States, where success has been achieved in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and senile dementia.

there are also humor improvement groups in other countries. 

Effective good criticism: the opinion of a professional psychologist

Of course you can. But, like any skill, a sense of humor requires regular training and practice. Try to find fun moments in the most everyday things. It is useful, for example, to build some funny associations, or just be able to laugh at yourself.

It is also very useful to make up your own jokes and then voice them to others. There are a large number of "open" microphones where anyone can tell their jokes. And even if at first not everything works out, then this is an invaluable experience!

Thank you for staying with estet-portal.com. Read other interesting articles in the "Psychology" section. You may also be interested in:

Coping with Anxiety Disorder: A Psychotherapist's Perspective