Learn how therapeutic humor can be used as a  Fibromyalgia Self Help technique.  Humor is an essential tool for  sufferers for several reasons.  It assists people to connect with others, reducing stress by allowing patients to view the world with perspective. It is not situations that generate FMS stress,  it is the meaning placed on the situations. Humor adjusts the meaning so that the event is not so powerful. Humor helps patients by replacing distressing emotions with pleasurable feelings.

 

Humor changes how patients behave.  When we experience humor we talk more, make more eye contact with others, touch others, and we begin to feel better. Humor increases energy, and with increased energy, patients begin to perform physical activities  that they might otherwise avoid. Humor can change a patient’s biochemical state by decreasing fms stress hormones and increasing infection fighting antibodies. It increases attentiveness, one’s heart rate and pulse.  Without humor one's thought processes are likely to become stuck and narrowly focused leading to increased emotional stress and fatigue.  Lack of humor eliminates a healthy way for sufferers  to feel better.