Eating disorders inspires laughs

People who know me describe me as a fairly positive and gasp, even perky kind of person.  You kind of have to be a “people person” if you’re going to be a reporter; I mean, who wants to talk to a sour-faced prude, right?

When my circle of friends and I first began blogging years ago as a means of keeping up with one another, all I posted were works of creative non-fiction, usually about the inordinate amount of weird people with off-center social aberrations who are somehow drawn to me like a magnet.  The combination of facial piercings with flame-red hair, along with my signatory “try anything” attitude, has led me into some terribly strange lands.

So, making the transition to a blog whose primary focus is on eating disorder awareness has been difficult.  Eating disorders are endlessly depressing.  There is nothing noble in starving oneself; nothing to be admired in sticking your fingers down your throat until you vomit.  And all too often, stories in the media reinforce an already disordered culture, with positive news a rarity.

But talking about eating disorders doesn’t have to be all serious and depressing.  The Calgary Sun reports today on an Alberta Children’s Hospital nurse who incorporates humor into her treatment of eating disordered patients, for which The Sun chose Naime Elain as its Nurse of the Month for November.

“It isn’t unusual to walk by the group treatment room and see Naime and the clients sporting glasses made of pipecleaners or hearing stories from clients how Naime has made up a word in a board game and tried to convince them it’s real,” said co-worker Lois McCormack, a case manager and family counselor at the Eating Disorder Program.

“Naime is rather infamous for her practical jokes and no staff member is immune.”

Humor, said Elain, is an important part of the healing process, especially since many of her patients are struggling in the darkest days of their lives with mental and emotional issues.

“When people have hit their rock bottom, we need to value their experience, but we also need to laugh about things and allow them to bring some pleasure back into their life,” she said.  “Sometimes a joke about a circumstance we can all identify with is all they need.”

Elain isn’t the only eating disorder professional cracking jokes about the disease.  Author and lecturer Jenni Schaefer regularly incorporates humor in her work as a speaker and writer on eating disorder related topics.

Comedienne duo Marcy Etlinger and Penelope Lombard inspire laughs with their skit “Two Thin,” performed at college campuses nationwide.  And comedian Michelle Garb uses comedy to tell of  her experiences overcoming anorexia in the widely-acclaimed skit “Fat Brain / Skinny Body.” Garb, too, has a new skit out, “I’m Going Mental,” which focuses on mental illness.

In her article, “The Therapeutic Use of Humor in the Treatment of Eating Disorders; or, There is Life Even with Fat Thighs,” social worker Sarita Broden insists that humor is “probably one of the most potent in the therapists arsenal.”  She advocates the appropriate use of humor, offered with sensitivity, as one effective way to deal with difficult-to-reach patients.

Dr. Irina Webster also wrote about an experiment she conducted with six of her eating disordered patients: She asked them to laugh at least an hour a day.  After two months, all six patients reported significant improvements in their mental and emotional states.  Explains Webster:

…I think if you can laugh about something, than that something stops looking like a problem. If the problem is not a problem anymore you will let it go with ease.

What do you think about the use of humor in eating disorder recovery?  Is laughter still the best medicine of all?

Cross-posted on The-F-Word.org.