"Laughing too much"?

blue-roses

Well-known member
I was bored today so I started reading yet another definition of SA on some website; the article was actually written by the psychologist I'm seeing atm. One of the symptoms mentioned was "laughing too much". This was the first time I'd ever seen it mentioned anywhere, and yet it's one of my worst symptoms (and it was worse at school). Just wondering if anyone else has this problem too.

At school I would get so nervous that the tiniest thing, even if it wasn't that funny, would set me off. When we had to read aloud in class (regardless of whether I was reading or not), I'd be on the lookout for words that might possibly be funny. I don't normally find words like "gay" (as in happy), "bosom"...or even "ball" funny (see, I'm not an eleven-year-old boy), but these suddenly became hilarious when the whole class was quiet and I felt conspicuous. I would get tears welling in my eyes trying to stop myself from just letting out a huge snort of laughter and often I had to stab myself with a pen or completely tune out to stop it.

It's still a problem in certain situations at uni; in my linguistics tutorial (it's the one class where I have no-one to talk to), the tutor is a really eccentric but sweet guy that's always making self-deprecating jokes. His English isn't great, so most of his jokes are about that; and while the rest of the class chuckles a bit, once I start, I can't stop...I sit there for five minutes grinning like the Cheshire cat, all the while going redder and redder because I know I shouldn't still be smiling... I hope to God that he doesn't think I'm laughing at his English and being mean.

The other day in my human biosciences prac, we had to nominate volunteers from each team to do some stepping so we could monitor their heart rate as the exercise intensity increased. At first, everyone laughed because the four volunteers were all stepping in synch and it looked like they were marching in the army or something. Once again, I couldn't stop grinning, and then, about five minutes after everyone else had stopped laughing, I suddenly let out this "mmmmmffffffffffhhhhhhhhhhhehhhhhhheheheheh..." noise and everyone in my group looked at me like I was insane. I wanted to die; I pretended I'd seen something funny on the other side of the room...not sure it was very convincing.

Anyway, those are some of my (long as usual) examples...anyone else suffer from this?
 

reslo

Well-known member
i laugh too much too and at inappropriate moments- it's more of a constant nervous giggle- it always comes out at the end of sentences- even if what i said is not funny. i don't know how to stop it, it's really annoying (it's like for example: How are you?? Fine *annoying giggle* Do you have some tylenol I can borrow?? No, i don't *nervous giggle*)
and yeah i relate because now i feel stupid because it seems like i'm laughing at the person
and i've noticed that sometimes i'll just giggle instead of talking. smiling and laughing is definitely my defense mechanism for my anxiety. it's embarrassing when you think somebody is gonna tell a joke, but they say something serious, and you laugh anyways- *groan* i've done that a lot
the only thing that helps me at least a little bit, is to bite my lip/inside of my mouth, or to mentally tell myself to stop laughing, whatever was said wasn't funny, you don't need smile/laugh all the time, etc., and move my facial muscles into a more relaxed expression, and tense my jaw or to rest my chin in my hand, or just try to focus/concentrate on something- it's a habit i really want to get rid of-
it makes it seem like i'm constantly flirting with every guy i talk to because i can't stop giggling.... it's like i know i'm doing it, but i can't stop myself from doing it

and also too, it's ok to not laugh at a professor's joke and be bored and cynical like a lot of the other students (it won't hurt the prof's feelings)

does your psychologist give any ways to treat laughing too much?
 

Harleyq

Well-known member
I don't laugh too much but when I find something funny, I laugh longer than everyone else...it's embarrassing. Everybody else is over it and has moved on, and here I am trying to hold in my laughter about it 10 or 15 minutes later.

I don't think it's related to my SA though.

EDIT: It happened today, just a little while ago! I was in Spanish class and we were practicing future tense and one guy in my class said "If I were rich, I'd get married in Disney World" and the teacher thought he said "I'd go hunting in Disney world" and I burst out laughing and said "I like hunting better" and then the rest of the class laughed.

5 minutes later, everyone has calmed down and there I was sitting in my chair with a cheshire cat grin making stifled laughing noises...I'm still chuckling a little over it, in fact.
 
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I do this too. I don't laugh at inappropriate things, but I do smile/laugh longer about amusing incidents longer than everyone else. Sometimes I'll even start thinking about something that happened days or weeks ago and start laughing about it again, wherever I happen to be... I try to stop myself in public though, I don't want to look like a fool. I've thought about it sometimes, and I think that I keep going back over the same funny incidents because it's not that often that I connect with people in a funny moment like that- it seems like other people forget them quicker because they have so many experiences/incidents like that that it's no big deal.
 
I have a strong tendency to get over excited and tell jokes constantly. Thanks for sharing this symptom, Im adding it to my list.
 

CPA23

Well-known member
I also laugh a lot. It's funny (no pun intended) because I do seem to laugh at inappropriate times and people look at me funny. But then when I have a normal expression on my face, people think I am mad at the world. It is really frustrating!! This makes me so self-conscious, because I want to laugh, but sometimes I'll wait until someone else laughs so I know that it is OK. Or I could be laughing at something someone does and they might think that I am laughing at them. I'm not laughing at them, I'm laughing at what they did!

I get so frustrated b/c most times I don't know when or when not to laugh. I don't want to offend anyone by thinking that I am laughing at them, nor do I want to have a "serious look" all the time!! URRRGHH!!
 
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