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Nov. 10, 2006
Harnessing one's fear
Positive can come from negative, says comic.
KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR
David Granirer isn't the kind of therapist who believes everything
will be OK if we all just think positive thoughts.
"It would be really insulting for someone to tell [Holocaust
survivor] Victor Frankel that the reason he was in a concentration
camp is because he didn't think positively and wasn't spiritually
centred," Granirer said, by way of example, in a recent interview
with the Independent. "I've actually heard people say
things like, 'But maybe somewhere in the Holocaust, there were people
that were able to transcend the whole thing.' I'm sorry, if you
were a Jew in Poland in 1941, good luck. You're far better off putting
your fear into finding a good hiding place than you are into trying
become spiritually centred and at one with the universe."
Needless to say, the founder of Stand Up for Mental Health and author
of The Happy Neurotic: How Fear and Angst Can Lead to Happiness
and Success hasn't endeared himself to the kind of self-help
advocates who promote "that kind of childlike magical thinking
that says, 'Well, if I think only positive thoughts, then everything
will be fine and I will only attract good energy to me and that
will protect me.' But let's face it, you can think all the good
thoughts you want, you can still be killed in a car accident, or
in the World Trade Centre, [be] in the wrong place at the wrong
time."
What Granirer believes instead is that we should take responsibility
for our own actions and take the energy we get from negative experiences
and put it to good use. "Those feelings," he said, "they're
not only impossible to eradicate – we will always have
fear and anxiety – they're incredibly productive when you know
how to use them."
Granirer uses this paradigm both in his private practice and while
leading comedy workshops. Comedy has helped him get past some of
his own depression issues, too.
"It's certainly wonderful for my confidence," he said.
"It's sort of a cognitive shift in that when you have a mental
illness or emotional issues, there's always a lot of stuff you're
really ashamed of, things that you've done in the past or ways you've
behaved – and now all of a sudden, you're doing comedy and
this is what constitutes your act, so these painful incidences go
from, 'Oh, I don't even want to think of that' to, 'Oh, this will
make great material!' "
He conceded there are many Jews who suffer from, if not mental illness,
"then certainly high levels of anxiety. My guess is just the
fact that Jews of European descent, growing up with centuries of
persecution and trauma, I'm sure it's imprinted itself on our nervous
systems." And yet, he said, "I think that's one of the
reasons, paradoxically, that the Jewish people have succeeded so
well, is that our fear and our neurosis has driven us to succeed
to try and find places where we're safe. I think it's been a huge
help."
As for those Granirer has guided through his unique stand-up program,
his students include people with a wide range of mental disorders
– and his course has brought some remarkable outcomes.
He recounted the tale of one woman, a schizophrenic, who had barely
been able to leave her house before taking the stand-up workshop.
"She was afraid to talk to people; to go out in public, in
case people were looking at her or judging her," he said. "Suddenly,
she was able to make them laugh. For most of us, we just take that
for granted. For her, it was this huge step."
He said he found the program hugely rewarding. "For me,"
he said, "it's just a whole lot of fun and I love the process
of watching people come into the course and they're terrified and
convinced they're going to fail and then watching them succeed.
I just get so much joy out of that."
Granirer hosts Stand Up for Mental Health: A Happy Neurotic Grad
2006 at the Arts Club Granville Island this Sunday. He will also
perform stand-up and read from The Happy Neurotic at the
Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on Monday, Nov. 20,
as part of the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival. For more information,
visit www.jccgv.com.
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