Using Humor to Survive Hard Things
On finding the funny in the absolutely f*cked
I started therapy at forty. First time ever.
Growing up Australian, therapy wasn’t done. The cultural response to emotional crisis was “she’ll be right.” It’ll sort itself out. You’ll be fine. Have you tried getting on with it?
She’ll be right doesn’t work when everything falls apart at once.
One thing I’ve learned sitting on that couch: humor is survival equipment. Not the bypass kind. The dark kind that names the absolutely f*cked situation you’re in and finds the funny in it anyway.
If you’ve ever walked into a session planning to talk about work stress and walked out having excavated something from 1987 you didn’t know was still there, this one’s for you.
More coming. The material is, unfortunately, endless.
How do you deal with hard things? Dark humor? Ice cream? Pretending everything is fine until it isn't? Tell me in the comments.
—Juliet K. Fox