Pain meds and comfort TV

I have been discussing this at length with friends -- friends who don't know one another, btw -- and have discovered a connection between being on pain medication and mindless television viewing.

Here's the scenario: You wake up suddenly because prescription pain medication has just worn off. Ow, OW, OW! You're very awake and very uncomfortable right now, but your goal is to become very drowsy and very comfortable as soon as possible.

Reading is out of the question. Pain killers mess with my vision and besides, the goal is to (as the Lads once sang) "turn off your mind, relax and float downstream." You don't want anything to really engage you, just distract you. So you turn on the TV.

If you're me, you go to the Comcast OnDemand menu and find Friends. The length (just 22 mins., since there are no commercials OnDemand) and the content (very, very familiar) make it perfect. I know I'm free to doze off before the end because I know how Joey's hernia/insurance dilemma is resolved and what ultimately happens between Monica and Richard because I think I've seen every episode twice.

My cousin Rosemary gravitated to M*A*S*H. She distracted herself from the pain not with the plots but by trying to see how many jokes, puns and sight gags she could remember from previous viewings.

If you're my friend Kathleen, you go black and white. There's a local station here that specializes in just that between midnight and dawn. She took whatever was on, but her favorite was The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. She doesn't know why, actually. The premise is hopelessly dated and she can't remember any of the plots. But it's comforting, and it lulls her.

My friend John found that, after his foot surgery, his pain was worst in the afternoon. The discomfort literally exhausted him and he'd long to nap when the meds kicked in. So for him, the comfort show of choice was always Judge Judy. The cases were just interesting enough to take his mind off his ouchies, but since the resolution was always a foregone conclusion, he didn't feel he missed anything if he dozed off before the top of the hour.

TV as Therapy -- there's a medical journal study here, I tell 'ya!