Why Is Comedy So Important to You in Dealing With Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Dan Malito of Garden City, NY, wants you to know that it's OK to laugh about his life with RA. He'll chuckle right along with you.

It's so important to take away those handcuffs. It breaks down the walls. Like, oh, he's joking about his disability, so I won't feel so bad if I say something silly by accident. You know what I mean?

(Why is Comedy so Important to You in Dealing With Rheumatoid Arthritis?)

I call it the poignant absurdity of being disabled, because it is. It's absurd. The silliest things happen to you. Things that would never happen otherwise, and it sort of developed because even with the friends I had, I still was bullied, and I wasn't going to fight them. I had to come up with some way to sort of deflect, get out of situations, defend myself. That's how the humor sort of developed.

Then as I was writing, when I started writing about 15 years ago, I just realized that when people are laughing, they're not worried about, "oh, am I saying the wrong thing?" I wanted to put them at ease and laughter does that. That's why it's so important, because when you start laughing together with someone, it just it breaks down the walls. Just because I'm disabled doesn't mean I'm any different than you. You know, I still laugh. You laugh, I laugh, we laugh together.

Point is I like who I am. I really do. Despite all the shortcomings that come with having a chronic illness, I don't think I would have developed such a sharp wit and really like who I am. It's crazy to say as someone who's disabled and has a chronic illness, but I like who I became. So yeah, I think it did help me.