‘Finding light in the darkness’: exploring comedy as an intervention for eating disorder recovery

Purpose Eating disorders remain a major health concern with the incidence of these illnesses has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic. With increased demands on treatments and service provision, and evidence that waiting for treatment is harmful, it is important that research explores novel and innovative adjuncts within interventions for individuals experiencing eating disorders. There is growing evidence highlighting that arts’ interventions are beneficial for recovery from eating disorders, with comedy workshops specifically, have shown promising results for recovery. Design The study used a qualitative interview study design, utilising pre, post and three-month follow-up individual interviews and workshop observations, to explore the feasibility of conducting a comedy intervention for people in recovery from eating disorders (n=10). Findings Findingss: how the comedy intervention had high acceptability and feasibility. For most individuals, participating in the course had positive outcomes, including promoting personal recovery across all five elements of the CHIME framework. Unique assets of the course included providing participants with an opportunity to distance themselves from everyday worries of living with an ED; the opportunity to cognitively reframe situations by making them the object of humour; and it provided a safe space to (re-)build a positive sense of self and develop self-acceptance through humour and play by challenging unhealthy perfectionism. Originality This study highlights that such innovative approaches can positively support personal recovery for people with eating disorders, with findings providing evidence that this comedy intervention acts to address elements of the CHIME framework to encourage and enable positive outcomes among participants.