“Laugh It Off” is by far the most popular Stand Up To Stigma education program. Essentially, peer presenters are trained to take the horrible things that have happened in their lives and make fun of these most horrific events.
The idea is that if you can laugh at the horrible things that have happened to you, it takes away some of the power the horrible things have over you. And being perfectly honest, some of the stuff peers do when in crisis really is hilarious in retrospect.
So not only do our peer presenters learn self-empowerment through humor, our audiences learn that it’s okay to think of mental health issues in lighter, happier terms rather than heavy, dark doldrums that haunt peers forever.
Recovery is more than possible, and humor goes a long way towards a positive recovery journey.
