Wait, what?!!! You say poking fun at fear can make me feel better? Well first off, let’s get something straight…OCD is not funny. It’s about one of the most unfunny conditions a person can experience. So many of the fears that OCD attaches to are very serious worries that are common to the human condition: death, catastrophic events and medical conditions, contamination, guilt, shame, embarrassment, just to name a few. And if they were to happen, most people wouldn’t be laughing at them in the moment.
So with that, you might ask, how can humor be used to push back against OCD? Well, though OCD is serious, the rules it makes up to get people to complete rituals can be ABSURD! For example, how would touching an object a certain number of times, or a “just right” number of times, prevent something like a plane falling out of the sky? Our rational brains and our senses know better. Unfortunately, OCD doesn’t always respond to logic, and can make people doubt their own eyes, ears, thoughts, experiences, perceptions and memory. It lives in a place in our brain that doesn’t often respond to reason.
But by using humor, we can tap into some places in our brain, mind and body on a deeper level. We can “fight fire with fire,” absurdity with absurdity. Comedy has been a part of the human experience since our beginnings. You’ve probably heard of a number of cliches that illustrate the concept of using humor to confront some very difficult subject matter, for example: “If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry,” or “gallows humor.” Popular comedians often use the refrain “What, too soon?” when making jokes about “taboo” subjects like death, or sex, or catastrophe, and then get nervous laughter or groans from the audience. Humor gives us the chance to explore fears that we might otherwise not be able to talk about. It allows us to “dip a toe in the water,” without jumping into the deep end.
Comedy in movies is a great example of how some very serious subject matter can be addressed and processed. To illustrate: if someone were to be attacked with a sword in real life, it would be horrific and quite unfunny! But to use humor, if you’ve seen the Black Knight scene in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, to hear “it’s just a flesh wound,” puts us in stitches (pun intended)!
And if you’ve ever seen the movie “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” then you’ve seen a great example of how humor can be applied to push back on OCD, core fears and phobias. When students in the movie come face-to-face with a shape-shifting creature that takes on the form of their greatest fears, their teacher instructs them to shout the word “Riddikulus!” and form a mental picture of a comedic version of their fear. For example, a giant spider is pictured with roller skates on each foot, falling all over itself, unable to stand up…the intimidating teacher Professor Snape is pictured wearing a silly hat and clothes…a giant venomous snake gets transformed into a clown. The students’ fears are realized, then diffused.
There are many tools in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) that can be used to push back on OCD fears, and humor is just one of them, and maybe not the first. So the timing of using the humor tool may not be a first line of defense: a person may need to see some initial progress in treatment to be able to find humor in what may otherwise be very serious circumstances. That’s where working with a trained OCD therapist, such as the counselors at OCD Spectrum, come in. With our experience and expertise, we are here to guide you through the process and progress, supporting you in using the tools (humor included!) toward feeling better. For some with OCD and phobias, the idea of getting better might sound ridiculous right now, but with treatment, relief is within reach!
