Stroke: The Healing Art of Laughter

After a stroke, some people develop a condition called Emotional Lability. This means that they may laugh or cry at inappropriate times. The part of the brain that controls emotions may be temporarily jumbled. Other stroke heroes may indicate an expressionless facial appearance. They may be attempting to listen and understand so intensely that their face may show no sign of a smile, a frown, or a twinkle in their eyes. Slowly, comprehension may return. Then, we begin to work on acknowledging communication by using the correct facial expression while simultaneously listening to what we hear. This is a very difficult task to perform after having a stroke.

In our society a dead pan look may indicate boredom, disinterest, or rudeness. This is not true for people that have had a stroke. Think of the last time you heard a beautiful symphony and it moved you so much that you gently closed your eyes to shut out everything around you but the music. Sometimes, in order to concentrate or comprehend what is being said, a stroke hero may do the same. For many stroke heroes, facial expressions are secondary to comprehension.

You may smile or even laugh at a joke or something that strikes you as humorous. While someone who has had a stroke may ponder the joke and understand only the literal meaning, thus missing the inevitable punch line. The joke may not be funny if it is taken literally.

Carol Burnett said, "Humor is tragedy turned upside down." Since stroke is certainly a devastating tragedy the humor of what we do while healing from stroke may be lost until we are ready to heal from the inside out.

That inside place for humor may be found while watching your favorite stand up comedian, or reading a humorous cartoon, or merely observing the daily rituals of those around you. When you think of it, the new way you learned to dress after the stroke may all of a sudden put a smile on your face. For women, putting a bra on backwards and upside down doesn't even sound natural. But I soon realized that the 18-hour bra lived up to its name because it took me that long to put it on!

It's far better to laugh than it is to cry. And when you laugh, it means that the grieving process is making way for the healing to begin. When you can laugh at something you said that you didn't actually mean to say, you are learning to flip the tragedy of stroke into humor. During the first year post-stroke, I was committing faux-pas all over the place. It's a wonder I wasn't arrested by the "appropriate" police. Sometimes, my standard word "bad" would rear its ugly head and I would say, "Have a bad day!" And then smile a Cheshire cat grin. "No, no," I'd try to correct myself, "Have...a...bad...day," I'd enunciate more emphatically the second time around. Finally, I'd just shrug my shoulders and wave.

Humor can be very complicated and problematic as well. Certainly we don't want the public to perceive us as comedians or laughing at issues of disability. But to suddenly understand humor is an extremely important milestone in the healing process. Our brain is able to make that leap from concrete to abstract thinking. Wow! Those brain cells are healing - we "get it!"