Laughing Through The Tears

In these unprecedented days of stress and anxiety, here’s an unlikely outlet. Improv. No, really! Here’s why it works.

- MELISSA GREER

WHEN CAMERON ALGIE’S THERAPIST SUGGESTED HE TRY IMPROV, HE hated the idea. “I thought, ‘Wow, you really don’t get anxiety. I can’t do anything, let alone do something so scary.’”

Social anxiety is one of the most common anxiety disorders and affects up to 13 percent of Canadians. In severe cases, people with social anxiety might avoid all social situations, even dropping out of school or quitting their jobs.

Improv sounds like the last thing someone with social anxiety would want to do.

But growing research suggests that improv could actually be a beneficial form of therapy for those who suffer from anxiety. In a way, improv functions like exposure therapy, where participants confront their fears head-on. But there’s more to it than that. Experts believe that similar to a therapist’s office, improv offers a safe space without judgment or fear of failure.

In fact, psychology professor Gordon Bermant outlined similarities between the two in a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. “Both improv and applied psychology practices aim to increase personal awareness, interpersonal attentiveness and trust,” writes Bermant.

Comedy – and, more specifically, laughter – provides an incredible physical release, says Journey Gunderson, executive director at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. “Jokes and sketches are a buildup of tension followed by the punchline, which is a release of that tension,” she says. “In many ways, there is no better remedy for high stress and anxiety than laughter and that release of tension.”