Today, on My Favorite Disease (Oh, do you NOT have a favorite disease?) I saw an informercial this AM for treatment for a disease called PBA: PseudoBulbar Affect, or: bouts of uncontrollable laughter / crying at inappropriate moments – also referred to as ’emotional incontinence,’ which is my new favorite pair of words. I love many things about this disease. I do, though, extend my official sympathy to anyone who has it, because I’m sure it’s horrible. If a person is afflicted with this, oftentimes because of neurological damage (stroke, Lou Gehrig’s, TBI, etc.) — their outer emotional expressions are oftentimes completely disconnected from their inner emotional state, which must be beyond frustrating and embarrassing. But what I love is this: isn’t life just so constantly hilarious and tragic and absurd all at once that all we can do is LAUGH AND CRY AT IT WHEN WE SHOULD NOT? In a way, aren’t we all kind of afflicted with this, in some small way? Are these afflicted folks’ brains just calling it like it is? PREACH, BRAINS, PREACH.
