in bad situations

I have discovered that when I am in a bad situation and don't know what to do, I laugh? For example, someone asked me if my pop was dead once, and I laughed. Obviously I don't think its funny, but my body doesn't know how to react to such a hurtful question, so it makes me laugh.

Yesterday, I was with some friends and one of them asked me a question that no one has asked me before. It was very private and answering it hurt me, which unfortunately my answer to was yes. It was something that I don't like talking about, that hardly anyone else knows. And of course, I felt awkward, uncomfortable and hurt, so I laughed. I don't undersdtand why I do this? And I didn't feel hurt because my friend asked me, I felt hurt because it was bringing up memories. And no one has ever asked the question before, so I was shocked. I'm obviously not going to tell you the question, especially on the internet.. But if you think of something in your past that's really hurt you, and you're probably thinking it has something to do with my engagement that was called off? No. It's much bigger than that; you might be able to see how hard it was for me.

Last night I went to a course about grief, and that helped. But we were talking about a different kind of grief, more of a loss grief. But everyone knows I need that too! And now someone knows my answer to the question I'd never been asked.

When I should cry or scream in answer to horrible questions, why do I laugh? Does it have something to do with the fact that I'm generally a happy person? Or is it because of my pride, I don't want to breakdown in front of people - so I laugh instead? Or maybe, I want to cheer myself up in an instant so I laugh, sending a "natural high" to my brain? Or, maybe, I'm just weird...?