Laughing When Overwhelmed With Negative Emotion

[LittleL]

When I don't dissociate I laugh. Anything from anger to fear provoked by someone I'm with, or even empathizing with someone I just saw get hurt, can cause it. It's not a nervous laugh -- It feels like I just heard a really funny joke. I have almost no control over it, and it happens at the worst times. I can hold it in about half the time, but the best I can do is try to turn it into a convincing grimace.

Does this happen to anyone else?

 

[Britt.f7]

This happens to my son. It drives me crazy because it is inappropriate, but I am sure he can't control it. Otherwise, I think he would. He's 15 and I am hoping he learns to manage it as he gets older. It could cause some awkward moments, as I am sure you are aware.

It only happened to me once or twice. I can't remember the circumstances of both events, but I do remember how bad I felt looking at the other faces.

 

[Muzikluvr]

It happens to me. I laughed hysterically while being raped once. I laughed at my daughter while my husband was cleaning a painful wound on her shoulder.

I am not dissociative at those moments either. I think I am depersonalizing. It is as if I'm watching a movie. In movies, there are a ton of scenarios that are funny because we're watching them from the outsider's perspective. We laugh at people tripping and falling. We laugh at all kinds of terrible things, as long as we can detach our feelings of concern and empathy from the characters. A lot of times, the show's creators help us do that by demonstrating that the character is invincible... so, it's okay to laugh.

I think it is due to depersonalization, and you should discuss that with your Therapist, or do some research about it.

I think... leading up to it is a feeling of helplessness, and then I can't imagine what I am "supposed" to be thinking. Like, when my daughter was injured and Husband was tending to her wound... I couldn't think of what I should be doing. She didn't want to be touched or held. She just cried and begged us to stop, which was very upsetting. I was trying not to dissociate. I tried to "think of something else". I tried to distract her too, but she wasn't distracted. I tuned her out, and then heard her from the perspective of an outsider. Hence the laughter.

Hope this helps you figure out what you're doing, and why.

 

[novemberDark]

A friend had it happen at a funeral when she was a teen. She told me about it back then, and I remember, it happened to me under different circumstances, yet stressful moment.

I had always been so scared it would happen to me attending a funeral. Talking about that with another friend, I just had asked the question, ever felt like crying and laughing at the same time and it gets all mixed up?. He told me he had been on the floor to point where it hurts the tummy (uncontrollable) I guess.

I know that laughing relaxes the muscles, must be some kind of protection. I know that joking in real s..t situations really helps ( long as you don't have to hold on, hold on to someone etc.)It's has to be an insider joke for me, where there is trust.

Still afraid it could be a funeral and I hope someone will knock me out if that happens.

Must be something natural. Others experienced it too. Only once I got in the laughing crying switch on off (it doesn't go simultaneously for me and the laughing somehow took over)

 

[LittleL]

It happens to me. I laughed hysterically while being raped once.

I've also laughed hysterically in a similar situation... The person was trying to suffocate me and for some reason I just couldn't stop laughing. It was terrifying, yet I was laughing so hard that I probably could have suffocated myself, had it gone on for any longer. :(

I think it probably has a lot to do with depersonalization, but I'm not sure it's really similar to watching a movie. I'm completely aware the entire time that it's inappropriate for the situation, but for some reason my brain still tells my face to laugh even though I'm thinking the opposite. For example, I might be scolded by someone for doing something wrong, but I'll be thinking about how awful and worthless I am and out of nowhere I'll start laughing. I don't know, this is all very confusing.

At the very least, it's good to know I'm not the only one this happens to.

A friend had it happen at a funeral when she was a teen. She told me about it back then, and I remember, it happened to me under different circumstances, yet stressful moment.
I had always been so scared it would happen to me attending a funeral.

I'm so afraid of that happening to me too! I actually went to a funeral of friend I met in high school about a year ago... The whole time I was afraid I would start laughing because of all the people crying. It was very sad, though we hadn't spoken much in the two years before he passed so I think that let me distance myself far enough emotionally to prevent any unintentional laughter.

 

[franciemarnie]

I always thought it was dissociation - as in a person is not plugged into the emotional reality of the moment. They are responding emotionally as if something else is going on. I figure the fear feeling has been hijacked by the survival brain and replaced with an innocuous or opposite response.

Anyhoo, I did the laugh thing a lot in my teens and twenties. After that I was more zombie like and would show a total lack of affect talking about the most horrifying things, feeling nothing.

 

[DMerish]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudobulbar_affect (I don't think it's a real good overview, but it's a something)

A therapist once told me that the phenonomon happens when one's mind (i.e. one's ability to reason about a subject, concept or experience) clashes with one's mental expectations and the emotional reality of a situation all at the same time.

 

[radicalgratitude]

It happens to me. If I'm not laughing, I'm smiling. Yes, it does lead to awkward moments but when I explain to people that it's how I react when something is truly bothering me and it's involuntary, people are pretty understanding.

 

[LittleL]

I always thought it was dissociation - as in a person is not plugged into the emotional reality of the moment. They are responding emotionally as if something else is going on. I figure the fear feeling has been hijacked by the survival brain and replaced with an innocuous or opposite response.

Hmm, that sounds like the most convincing idea, but I wonder why laughter might be a survival instinct... It seems sort of counter-productive seeing as other people don't take it very well.

 

[franciemarnie]

@LittleL - Usually people laugh when they are relaxed and happy so maybe the brain switches to this inappropriate but more appealing "safe" affect to protect the stressed-out self. Other people may not like it but the brain is protecting the one who had the fear response. Just an idea.

 

[Kefira]

This has also happened to me when I'm overwhelmed. The most recent was when I was disclosing my most recent trauma and some subsequent situations to a friend. I was talking about how I was because of another situation really isolated immediately after by my friend group in general and how being all alone like that was so similar to what had happened when I was younger. I didn't even realize it until he stopped me and said "I think you need to take a breath. You're laughing and I think it's because you're trying to hard not to cry".

For me it's only happened during a stressful event once. It normally happens when I get myself really worked up and start laughing instead of crying or to try not to hyperventilate or the like.

 

[NukaGirl]

I thijk it's the same reason as to why we laugh when we're being tickled. If we laugh when we're being attacked, it confuses whatever is attacking us, and as such the attack will stop. It's self preservation.