Laughter out of place is a natural reaction that itself does not make a person bad.
Imagine that you are in a situation not at all funny or even sad, and your lips treacherously stretch out in a smile or a completely inappropriate desire to laugh. Here they shout at you, and you can hardly restrain an uninvited laugh. Or you are informed of hard news, and you barely restrain yourself so as not to burst out laughing.
Of course, all this is not a real laughter. A person in such circumstances is not at all joyful, but the situation still turns out to be as awkward and even offended for the rest of its participants.
If this happened in your life, then we are in a hurry to share good news: everything is in order with you. This is a fairly common reaction, which is most often called nervous laughter. We figure out why it arises and how to deal with it.
Why is it pulling to laugh at the wrong moment
One of the first to a nervous laughter was the psychologist Stanley Milgram paid attention to. It was in the sixties. At Yale University, Milgram studied how far people can go if they blindly trust the authorities. He suggested that one participants in the experiment give the discharge of current to others (in fact – to the assistants of the scientist). There was no category itself, but the dedicated participants carefully depicted how unpleasant they were. But the “tormentors” at the same time laughed. It sounds ominous, of course, but Milgram concluded that this is not from evil, and people can laugh when they fall into extremely uncomfortable situations.
Later, a neurologist and psychologist Vileyanur Ramachandran put forward a hypothesis that laughter was originally a kind of indicator who showed a person that everything was fine, there was nothing to be afraid of, you can relax. And, accordingly, nervous smiles and giggling in inappropriate conditions are something like psychological protection: I laugh, therefore, nothing bad happens. Also, according to Ramachandran, laughter helps to switch and distract from strong negative experiences.
Approximately the same conclusions were drawn by the authors of a small study conducted in 2015 at the same Yale University. They studied illogical emotional reactions like the desire to pinch the baby or laugh in a stressful situation and concluded that any strong emotion “overloads” us and we would like to restore the balance, dump stress.
How to prevent nervous laughter
The reasons for untimely smiles, of course, are respectful, and everyone showed such a reaction at least once. But to the one who giggled, for example, at the funeral, or smiled during a serious conversation with the leader, this is not easier. This is what psychologists recommend doing in such a situation.
Analyze when you laugh
Remember what most often causes you such a reaction: sad events, conflicts, or maybe situations in which you feel guilty. If your “laughter for no reason” will have certain triggers and you will understand them, you can prepare in advance.
Tune in
If you have to find yourself in a “dangerous” situation for you and you know about it in advance, you can try to reassure yourself: go to lose increasing tension, do several breathing exercises, lose in your head a possible scenario of upcoming events, rehearse acceptable behavior.
Communicate more often
The ability to control emotions when communicating with people and selecting suitable reactions is a skill that is most often training. The more a person communicates, the more often he “works out” a variety of situations – both conflict and sad, the less influenced stress.
Contact the psychotherapist
If you can’t get rid of nervous laughter at all and it becomes a problem for you, you should try to contact a specialist who will help to understand the reasons for such a reaction and affect it.
It will also not be superfluous to see a doctor, because a nervous laughter similar to a tick can be a symptom of several diseases, in particular hyperthyroidism, Graves disease, pseudobulbar syndrome.
What to do if you already laugh and cannot stop
Imagine something frightening
Imagine something very terrible, preferably in colors and as more details as possible. This will help to switch and stop laughing or smile inappropriately.
Think about something very boring
Remember what you ate for breakfast in the morning. Mentally list that you are right now or what items surround you. Think about what you planned to do this week. Start in the mind to distribute expenses or count expenses.
The concentration on such “boring” trifles will interrupt the nervous reaction, and it will be easier for you to control yourself.
Take your hands
You can start twisting the clock on the wrist, tug your hair, straighten clothes, rearrange objects on the table. Such actions also help to distract and put feelings in order.
Find the preposition to go out
If possible, leave the room, find a secluded place and try to calm down, breathe or drink water.
Imagine that you are in a situation not at all funny or even sad, and your lips treacherously stretch out in a smile or a completely inappropriate desire to laugh. Here they shout at you, and you can hardly restrain an uninvited laugh. Or you are informed of hard news, and you barely restrain yourself so as not to burst out laughing.
Of course, all this is not a real laughter. A person in such circumstances is not at all joyful, but the situation still turns out to be as awkward and even offended for the rest of its participants.
If this happened in your life, then we are in a hurry to share good news: everything is in order with you. This is a fairly common reaction, which is most often called nervous laughter. We figure out why it arises and how to deal with it.
Why is it pulling to laugh at the wrong moment
One of the first to a nervous laughter was the psychologist Stanley Milgram paid attention to. It was in the sixties. At Yale University, Milgram studied how far people can go if they blindly trust the authorities. He suggested that one participants in the experiment give the discharge of current to others (in fact – to the assistants of the scientist). There was no category itself, but the dedicated participants carefully depicted how unpleasant they were. But the “tormentors” at the same time laughed. It sounds ominous, of course, but Milgram concluded that this is not from evil, and people can laugh when they fall into extremely uncomfortable situations.
Later, a neurologist and psychologist Vileyanur Ramachandran put forward a hypothesis that laughter was originally a kind of indicator who showed a person that everything was fine, there was nothing to be afraid of, you can relax. And, accordingly, nervous smiles and giggling in inappropriate conditions are something like psychological protection: I laugh, therefore, nothing bad happens. Also, according to Ramachandran, laughter helps to switch and distract from strong negative experiences.
Approximately the same conclusions were drawn by the authors of a small study conducted in 2015 at the same Yale University. They studied illogical emotional reactions like the desire to pinch the baby or laugh in a stressful situation and concluded that any strong emotion “overloads” us and we would like to restore the balance, dump stress.
How to prevent nervous laughter
The reasons for untimely smiles, of course, are respectful, and everyone showed such a reaction at least once. But to the one who giggled, for example, at the funeral, or smiled during a serious conversation with the leader, this is not easier. This is what psychologists recommend doing in such a situation.
Analyze when you laugh
Remember what most often causes you such a reaction: sad events, conflicts, or maybe situations in which you feel guilty. If your “laughter for no reason” will have certain triggers and you will understand them, you can prepare in advance.
Tune in
If you have to find yourself in a “dangerous” situation for you and you know about it in advance, you can try to reassure yourself: go to lose increasing tension, do several breathing exercises, lose in your head a possible scenario of upcoming events, rehearse acceptable behavior.
Communicate more often
The ability to control emotions when communicating with people and selecting suitable reactions is a skill that is most often training. The more a person communicates, the more often he “works out” a variety of situations – both conflict and sad, the less influenced stress.
Contact the psychotherapist
If you can’t get rid of nervous laughter at all and it becomes a problem for you, you should try to contact a specialist who will help to understand the reasons for such a reaction and affect it.
It will also not be superfluous to see a doctor, because a nervous laughter similar to a tick can be a symptom of several diseases, in particular hyperthyroidism, Graves disease, pseudobulbar syndrome.
What to do if you already laugh and cannot stop
Imagine something frightening
Imagine something very terrible, preferably in colors and as more details as possible. This will help to switch and stop laughing or smile inappropriately.
Think about something very boring
Remember what you ate for breakfast in the morning. Mentally list that you are right now or what items surround you. Think about what you planned to do this week. Start in the mind to distribute expenses or count expenses.
The concentration on such “boring” trifles will interrupt the nervous reaction, and it will be easier for you to control yourself.
Take your hands
You can start twisting the clock on the wrist, tug your hair, straighten clothes, rearrange objects on the table. Such actions also help to distract and put feelings in order.
Find the preposition to go out
If possible, leave the room, find a secluded place and try to calm down, breathe or drink water.