People dealing with Multiple Sclerosis have challenges and those challenges can take a toll. Those challenges can be a grind, and they can smooth smiles until faces are left devoid of happiness and the curve of enjoyment and contentment is gone.
Although Laughing Through MS focuses on Multiple Sclerosis because it is an uncomfortably personal topic, the challenges of all manner of handicaps and disabilities share similarities. All patients can benefit from attention and empathy and that is the focus. This is true for those advocating and caring for those patients, too. The work they do is a seemingly impossible challenge and they could use help, too. They could benefit from cheering up, even when it’s done in the form of cheesey, inoffensive humor.
Statistics have shown that MS patients are prone to falling deeply into depression and malaise, and don’t have the easiest time finding joy. This propensity has led to increased rates of suicide, even double the rate of people without the disease. That is a tragedy and one that can be mitigated with jokes. Laughing Through MS isn’t just the name of the site, but an approach to a more fulfilling and enjoyable way of life.
Multiple Sclerosis is not a laughing matter and has never been considered such. Humor is a tool to make a truly awful situation more palatable. It can and is used a coping mechanism, but when pointed outward, it can and is used to introduce light and smiles to fellow warriors.
Reach out, offer a prompt or topic, then enjoy. You will be amazed what a joke can be made from. Disabilities are never taken lightly, but the weight of them can be lessened if you allow it, if you are open to it.