I’ve been meeting with my therapist. And naturally, we’ve been discussing my anxiety. He said something the other day that gave me pause. “You’re a funny guy,” he said.
I agreed with him.
“But a lot of your humor is making fun of yourself. Have you thought about making fun of your anxiety?”
Now this kind of weirded me out at first, I’ll admit, because it felt like making fun of my anxiety meant that there was something about me worth making fun of, which I’m pretty good at doing myself, but when someone else takes a jab, it feels like it’s confirming something I suspected, which make the depression and anxiety worse, and well... this is mental illness.
I think he could see that in my eyes, so he went on to explain further. He mentioned how a lot of my anxiety comes at night, and I should try poking fun at the those thoughts I have that tell me I’m never getting to sleep. Or if I don’t get to sleep, the anxiety is only going to get worse, and those thoughts feed on themselves making the anxiety worse (that’s how anxiety works, by the way. Think of a snowball getting bigger as it rolls, but not fluffy and full of winter wonder, and more filled with terror and burning.)
Anyway, the reality is, I’m not going to die if I don’t get to sleep. None of it is logical, and all of it is a little ridiculous when you think about it when you’re calm. It almost felt like he was suggesting I should laugh my way through the anxiety.
And as crazy at it sounds (I know, I just used an idiom with crazy in it to describe my crazy), I’ve been trying it, and somehow it’s working. It feels like I brought this big drooling sharp fanged monster in the room, and made fun of its tiny nipples.
Naturally, I don’t know how long this strategy will last. But I must say, the past few nights, I’ve been laughing myself to sleep, which is a lot better than panic-ing myself to sleep. So I’m going to keep at and if you think this will help you, by gosh give it a try, because as they say, laughter is the best therapy.
I’m going to try this tonight. lol
I’m going to use this when I wake up 3 hours too early and stress about stuff, including not getting back to sleep. Thanks!!!