The power of humor to challenge psychosis

When our family member became ill, we had no idea about mental illness, psychiatry and especially "recovery". Like many families I have spoken with, our lives were turned upside down and thrown over a cliff. The pain of it all was excruciating, but I think we kept thinking about how hard it was for her. She knew something was wrong but of course she couldn't quite figure out what it was. Our family attacked the illness on every front - psychiatry, letting go of expectations about school, and letting go of friends, church, savings, - you name it, we cast it to the wind. That life was gone and in it's place was something unfamiliar, scary, and difficult. But one of things we learned through that process (and there were many lessons ahead of us) was that humor was powerful enough to challenge and sometimes limit psychosis. Once in the deep of night our daughter (we have two daughters and two sons) was terrified by visions and voices. They were mean and threatening and always debilitating. We called a helpline, out of the area(recommended by the psychiatrist). The person on the other end of the line, after talking for a little while suggested that we watch a movie together, a funny one she said. We all love The Birdcage nothing can make us laugh more. It seemed stupid at the time. But when you are truly desperate you'll try anything. We popped the VHS in, sat beside her and watched a seriously funny movie. Within about 45 minutes, her fists softened, her shoulders dropped and she snuggled between her dad and I falling into a light sleep. I think we all learned something that night about coping with mental illness:
there are some things that can be done to help control some of the symptoms.