Can laughing cure depression?
Can laughter help with depression?
Laughter can help you feel happy while reducing stress, despair, and anxiety. Additionally, it can raise your self-esteem.
According to behavioural studies, affiliation humour can fend off suicidal thoughts and other depressive symptoms. Positive humour can help lift both patient and provider emotions when it is incorporated into depression treatment. Self-enhancing and affiliative humour are helpful coping mechanisms for stress in social, professional, and personal life.
Here are some ways that laughing can be beneficial to us:
- Laughter can boost immunity by triggering immune cells that fight infections.
- By promoting relaxation and limiting the release of stress hormones like cortisol, laughing may lower blood pressure for certain people.
- As you breathe in oxygen, which promotes heart and blood circulation, some people refer to laughing as “internal running.”
- Endorphins are released when you laugh, and they make you feel good. Additionally, these endorphins have analgesic properties.
- Because it naturally calms you, laughing can help you feel less stressed and anxious. Your heart rate will calm down and your blood pressure will drop as you laugh.
- According to some experts, laughter boosts creativity because it fosters a fresh way of looking at things.
Conclusion
Your brain releases tiny molecules known as neuropeptides when you smile to assist you combat stress. The role of additional neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins is thus also impacted. While serotonin is an antidepressant, endorphins work as a minor pain relief.