Nicompoop

March 14, 2017 ~ Sometimes life with mental illness can look pretty bleak, and the struggles a bit endless. This is a tough road to travel, but I would suggest that every now and then it's a good thing to take a detour to a happier place - even if only for a moment.

Tonight, I give you a story about keeping your sense of humor.

During Friday's State Hospital visit, my son was telling me and his sister (who was on the phone) a very serious story. Granted, it was a bit of a delusional story, but it was his reality, and the story and his feelings about it were important to him. This is heavy stuff that goes on in his brain and we were trying to give it the right amount of credibility to make him feel like what he was saying was important to us. We were listening carefully and thoughtfully, as we try to do.

Until.....

.....he busted out with "You just can't act like that. People will think you're a nicompoop".

At which point, his sister and I lost it. Of all the things he says - and some of them are pretty outrageous - we never expected him to use the word "nicompoop". We haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I felt terrible for laughing....but it was just so funny.

At first he just looked at me as I apologized profusely and explained that we weren't laughing at him, just at his word choice. And then....he started laughing too and we all felt better. A lot better.

On this journey, there's plenty of serious to go around for everyone. So give yourself permission to laugh. It's OK.