The Lighter Side of: Awful Episodes

One thing that I have always done is think about the entertaining aspects of a difficult situation.
It is not always easy to do.
When you are going through from episode to episode, jumping from one bad day to the next, when you are right in the centre of an awful problem, it is hard to try and see it objectively.
What I do is I imagine that I am in a sitcom. 'If what I am currently going through were to be on a sitcom, how funny would it be?'

When we are right in the middle of it - just trying to survive each excruciating moment - it is difficult to think of anything other than: 'When is this going to stop?' or 'Why can't I just feel better?' or 'Why isn't anything helping me?' or 'I want this to be over'.
But in those rare moments of clarity - like the first couple of minutes after a massive puking fit when you have no energy left - you may notice that your head is right inside of a toilet, or that you have sweat through your clothing, or that there is Kleenex all over the floor from the times vomit came through your nose.
If all of that was featured in a sitcom, the moment I realized my head was in the toilet, the studio might cringe and laugh. The moment the camera pans to the mounds of Kleenex and the sweat dripping from my hair, more cringing laughter and awkward smiles. Then watching my body slump to the floor, a pillow on the bathroom tiles, looking disgusting and exhausted but thrilled to have vomited it all up, the camera pans out on the disaster in the washroom and how horrible I was keeping myself during this stupid fit.
The only thing funnier would be if I had had to be going to the washroom and simultaneously vomiting into a bucket...
But I'll save that for another episode, because we all know these episodes happen every couple of months or so.

We see medical situations portrayed in television and film all the time - and there is always lovely music or studio laughter. While none of it is actually ever glamorous, and we do not usually have a soundtrack to fall back on, if we can find a way to see our plights as sitcom gold, we may find the humour in it.

The Lighter Side of awful episodes is that we can build up our repertoire of funny stories - even if they don't seem very funny in the moment. Plus, humour can get you through just about anything!