Bay Area Speaker Adds Humor to Chronic Pain

Chronic pain survivor gives humous talk about coping with pain. Tom Roberts was disabled by the rare nerve disease Trigeminal neuralgia. He was healed by brain surgery in June 2009.

Bay Area speaker, humorist and author Tom Roberts puts a touch of levity on chronic pain. “There’s nothing funny about hurting, physically, emotionally or mentally,” said Mr. Roberts who has recovered from two-and-a-half years of disabling pain as a result of rare never disease, “but laughter is the best medicine for coping with it,” he explained. Mr. Roberts, a former broadcast journalist and college professor, likes to tickle the funny bone in his talk “Cope with Pain without Being a Pain,” which he plans to present nationwide over the next few months and will have a DVD of his talk available for Christmas. “The value of laughter in helping to relieve pain began to attract significant attention in the 1980s when Dr. Norman Cousins in his book Anatomy of an Illness described how watching Marx Brother movies and reading humorous books and articles helped him recover from a life-threatening tissue disease,” Mr. Roberts said. Cousins made it a point to enjoy a hearty belly laugh several times a day. He claimed that a few minutes of laughter gave him an hour or more of pain-free sleep. As a result, many pain centers around the country began to use humor therapy to reduce the level of pain medication needed by patients. “Laughter,” Mr. Roberts explained, “is that it serves as a diversionary tactic - that is, it takes a patient's mind off the pain. It also triggers the release of endorphins, the chemicals in the brain that can make us feel good,” he added. Mr. Roberts plans to present his talk to service clubs, hospitals, and patient education groups and in radio and television appearances. His books, The Hall of Pain (features people who have overcome tremendous obstacles of physical, mental and emotional pain to give to others in acts of selfless service) and Chewing through the Straps: Living Successfully with Bipolar Disorder will be available in bookstores in December 2009. Tom Roberts earned his M.A. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Kansas and worked 20 years as a broadcast journalist with freelance contributions to The Voice of America, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, ABC Radio News and CNN. He is also a professional actor with stage, screen and recording credits. Mr. Roberts can be scheduled for a talk via his web site http://www.4clearcommunication.com

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Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Commanding Communication conducts corporate and individual presentation skills workshops and keynote addresses throughout the country.