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Does anyone else experience the inability to cry?
I have been diagnosed with Bipolar depression, anxiety, PTSD and frontal lobe brain damage. I experienced a major trama at 12 years old and received no support or acknowledgment that there was a problem. They were more interested in presenting the fake perfect happy family mirage. I cried myself to sleep every night until I found comfort numbing myself. I experienced another major betrayal at 23 and cried hard over that, then I said to myself never again. I am now 60 years old and I feel considerable compassion and empathy for people I just don’t actually cry. I’m literally breaking inside and I can’t release it. I am in talk therapy and on medication but trying to get off medication. Tired of pills. Anyone else have this issue?
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Most of my life I have cried a lot. Frequently in the presence of a teacher, a counselor, a boyfriend, anyone. My father's response was "dry up". This began to be hard to cry started, I think from the medicine I've been taking for maybe 20 years. I'm 73, I have 2 of three adult children don't talk to me. I've pretty much lost all of the people I know, including therapists, who don't want to hear those stories anymore. When I want to cry, sometimes I call the crisis lines. There are helpful, but they half to let me go in 15 minutes.
The stress from several serious directions. I've told some of my story, because I want you to understand that I also find it hard to cry. I'm surviving, but the depression and pain is still there.
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1 ReactionMy last comment was harsh and negative. I want to say that there are many things that can help the depression, such as exercise, listening to books online, activities of a group. Dozens of little things that can lift you up. Maybe if some of the pain and tension is released, it will be easier to cry. There is always hope.
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2 ReactionsI can cry now. A lot if needed. I have ptsd. I got bacterial meningitis of my brain in May 2014. A craniotomy was done to remove abcess left temporal lobe. My past experience about crying etc was " you can't cry" " pull yourself up by the boot straps" etc. What happened to me was life altering in a good way. Besides a lot of medical I had a lot of therapy. Plus many medications were deprescribed as my health improved. To express emotions In a healthy way is a good therapeutic tool. It allows our bodies to heal from trauma.
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2 ReactionsIt has been interesting to read the responses here. Like so many others, I do not cry, or rarely cry [maybe four times in 40+ years]. And it's just not something I have ever done, never really thought about it. Do I wish I could/would cry? Dunno.
Here is what WebMD has to say about it: https://www.webmd.com/balance/why-we-cry-tearing-up
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