Approaches in Alcohol & Drug Treatment
Nowadays exist many complementary approaches in alcohol and drug treatment, and the main aim of the assignment is to discuss laughter and humor approaches and their effects.
The science of laughter, or gelotology, has originated in America in the 70s of the twentieth century. So, it was the beginning of the development of various laughter and humor approaches in our society. Researchers from various universities have conducted many studies and proved that laughter is an effective cure for many contemporary diseases, including drug and alcohol abuse and even oncology. Moreover, the best physicians realize that the laughter and positive emotions caused by a sincere laughter have a psychological effect on the person and inspire his optimism and hope, and it affects both health and mind states. Approaches in Alcohol & Drug Treatment
Being more specific, it is good to note that cathartic processes, such as crying or aggression, are frequently used in various schools of psychotherapy, while laughter as a cathartic effect, as a rule, is ignored. Meanwhile, according to Junkins (2000), it is known from the literature that “laughter catharsis” is much stronger than “cathartic crying and aggression”. Of course, in contemporary society, people prefer to think about laughter as about something not serious enough because people tend to laugh at something humorous or in a state of happiness, or simply stupid situation; but therapeutic effect of laughter is really great and it will be a big mistake to ignore it.Approaches in Alcohol & Drug Treatment
Modern science begins to consider laughter as an important and serious phenomenon that can have a profound transformative effect on the psyche. The fact that laughter is the natural mechanism of survival and recovery, should not be ignored by psychological science and its practical use in alcohol and drug treatment shows that laughter has a great healing effect, as well as it can be applied both to the physical body and the psyche.
It was found that the brain releases endorphins – “happiness hormones” that powerfully affect the immune system and not only it during laughter. It is also proved that sincere laughter improves the function of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, digestive system and helps human organism to produce anti-stress hormones. It can be mentioned that psychological rehabilitation of alcohol or drug addicted people, who use laughter and humor therapy for their treatment is connected with the release of deeply repressed emotions.
When a person experiences some problems with drugs or alcohol abuse, there always can be seen depression and a state of apathy in such patients. It means that human organism is in a big stress and it has no internal capabilities to overcome the problem in own efforts. In such a way, when a person laughs, there turns on a process of changes in human mind and health state because laughter forces to work both hemispheres of the brain, and it helps to establish mental balance. Of course, the desire to recover greatly increases the chance of success, while laughter is given a powerful psychotherapeutic function. Laughter is not just a kind of fun; it gives human body a powerful psycho-physiological support. Obtaining discharge during laughter, human body is cleansed of the nervous overload. It strengthens the immune system. It has been experimentally proved that there increases an amount of useful substances that fight germs in human blood after a laughter session. Approaches in Alcohol & Drug Treatment
In a case of alcohol and drug treatment, laughter allows to break the constant isolation of addiction because it helps people to improve their cooperation and develop empathy, even in the groups of people of different nations and cultural backgrounds. Laughter helps patients to understand that they are not alone with their addictions and problems, because laughter unites people and it is mainly about human relationships. Moreover, there exists an individual technique that teaches people to cheer themselves and such an easy step may help people to control their feelings and emotions everywhere and at any time they want.
To continue, many drug addicts accept the fact that their addiction makes them lonely and it is a reason of their heartache. So, laughter and humor approaches may help them to relieve their pain in simple and natural way. The human subconscious filters words and there is a big difference between those words that we say, and those words which people around us hear. Moreover, sometimes people do not hear what other people say to them because their subconscious ignores it. But the jokes people take much more seriously. Humor does not exist in its pure form for human subconscious and jokes come into human mind in unfiltered form. It means that if you want something to pass the man’s mind, it is important to wrap it into a joke, or turn it into a funny story. Such an approach will help the person to remember the information and to react on it properly. After all, humor is contagious; it acts as a means of provocation of consciousness, like an awakening from previous sad thoughts and limited judgments. Approaches in Alcohol & Drug Treatment
In conclusion, we have discussed laughter and humor approaches and explained their impact on human health in the process of alcohol and drug treatment. We have also demonstrated many facts into the support of the statement that laughter helps to relieve tension in the body, remove the negative emotions and develop positive attitude to life. Laughter increases vitality, gives strength and vigor, as well as it returns people their children’s vitality, spontaneity and creativity. Approaches in Alcohol & Drug Treatment