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Nervous Laughter

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Meadowsweet

MyPTSD Pro
When I'm nervous or talking about feelings that I find difficult to talk about (ie in therapy), I smile and laugh. It's something that my therapist picks up on, and so I'm becoming very self-concious of it.

I wondered if anyone has had this, and found a way to stop doing it?
 
I don't know if this is the same thing as you, but when I used to talk about horrific things that happened to me, tragic things that gave me great pain and changed my life, I would almost always laugh while I told the story. Not a nervous laugh, but a big enjoyable laugh. I thought it was some kind of dark Irish humor because everyone in my family did it, but as time went on it was pointed out to me by a friend that she found it very sad and unsettling that I should be so disconnected from reality that I could laugh heartily talking about terrible things that had happened to me.

That was about 30 years ago. I don't laugh when I talk about that stuff now. It wasnt a conscious decision to stop. It happened over time that it stopped being laughable.

Now I think well on it if and where I am going to even approach telling those stories because these days I automatically go into the freezing cold/shaking/release of emotional energy thing if I do.
 
I definitely do the nervous laugh, I've done it for years and will often throw in a joke, poking fun at my situation. I think I do it so that people don't get upset or think they have to help me in any way, its like saying bad stuff happened but I'm really fine...no really....I'm just fine...nothing wrong with me see I'm still happy, I can still laugh no please laugh with me or I may just realise how completely not fine I am.
 
I do it with my T too. She has not pointed it out, but I can feel when I do it.

I chalk it up to just for me,as meaning, whatever I am talking about at the moment, I have not fully grieved that part, but maybe some parts I have.

Then there are other parts I have not gone through at all and laughing becomes a way to avoid. When I see my T looking sad because it is sad, I realize how sad it truly is after a few times seeing her face and then I start grieving. I was never allowed to feel my feelings growing up.

We live in a society where sharing feelings does not seem taboo but sharing seemingly "negative" ones is. Everyone is so caught up in positive thought this or that. I know on Facebook especially, people have a way of making me feel ungrateful when I share those parts about myself. And like fly away home, there are times I laugh so other people do not get upset.

Anyway, I think I am rambling and I am very sorry. Just wanted you to know I experience this too. Hugs. Tell your T!!
 
Yup. I do this. It is a coping strategy to diffuse the tension. I am able to turn it off and be more serious when I really want to but I understand that I mostly do it to make other people feel more comfortable.
 
Sometimes I will when I feel uncomfortable in a situation. I try to use sarcasm or joke my way out of something. Sometimes it seems appropriate, other times, to me, it does not. I do know that I have a very hard time not wanting to break out the humor when something seems very dark to me.

I have not, to my knowledge, done this in therapy.

@dreamsofmydeath My son does this. I do not remember a time that he hasn't responded inappropriately in this manner to things. He is 14 right now. He is such a happy go lucky kid most of the time, but sometimes, when he smiles or laughs, it is at inappropriate times and, as his mother, I am really clueless as to what to do. I usually call him on it, but he still does this. Maybe it is a thing of control??
 
My husband does it too Britt. I read it to be some type of emotional lability. It can be a symptom of PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders in general, neurological disorders, brain injury, all kinds of things. My husband has Tourette's.

Sometimes when we argue, one of us laughs and have to explain to the other that it is one of those moments where he or I did not mean to laugh. I was so GLAD he does it too and he understood me when it first presented in our relationship as it is something that previous people got very mad with.

I literally dissociate from the self consciousness of it when I am around others aside from my husband.
 
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