Emotional?

This has all just reminded me in fact that the me of the era before that awful job would have certainly reacted to the treatment I got from neighbours on moving here. I figured it out pretty soon/indeed downright got told by one of them that my house had been mentally earmarked by her for one of her friends - but "YOU bought it !!!!! (glare/glare at perfectly innocent me that had just bought it in the normal way - ie via an estate agent listing)". Cue for two of them were ganging up on me - because I'd inadvertently ruined their little plans for getting hold of my house for someone they knew and were - quite deliberately - trying to drive me out in every darn way they could think of. So at least they never succeeded in driving me to tears at the way they were acting and I hung on in there grimly until they quietened down or left - but they never once saw my tears and I didn't cry even when on my own. I just analysed what they'd done and said/why they'd done it/whether I'd actually done anything wrong (nope I hadnt) and clenched teeth and waited them out. But they never drove me to tears.

I would love to be able to cry. Occasionally I get a few tears in my eyes but that’s it. I haven’t cried for years. The last time I cried my husband shouted at me and stormed off. I don’t know if that caused it or if I am just hard.

62Granny

I have gone the other way, I used to cry/ tear up at the slightest thing, films , adverts, music it would set me off, but the last few years I have had a few set backs in my life and have found I have become less emotional/harder. I think it is that I know if I start it will just open the flood gates. So perhaps it more about shutting that side down is easier.

That's what I found personally too.

I used to tear up noticeably often and then I had to work for an employer I'd known would be boring - but hadnt realised they'd be "barstewards" as well (even to their own staff sometimes).

When they decided they didn't want a member of staff there any more (for whatever reason or excuse) they had a whole range of tactics they used to try and make the staff "resign of their own free will". I even found written policy stuff on how to treat staff in a way they would do exactly that! It was part of the spoken (or unspoken) way they expected their supervisory staff to act - so I only ever had one normal/reasonable supervisor in all the time I worked for them and he gave up being a supervisor (because he was basically a nice person and he didnt want to be nasty as part of his job description and he was a fairminded and intelligent person).

One of their tactics was to deliberately try and make staff cry and I would find myself starting to cry all too often when those supervisors started up with their nastiness. Then I realised that they would tend to react with looking self-satisfied and would even "go up a notch" on the nastiness. I had thought to start with that they would pull back and act normal (and apologetic) - but nope...they just doubled down on the nastiness!

Once I realised it was indeed a deliberate tactic and remembered I'd never been treated that way in previous jobs prior to working for them = I knew I had to control those tears and stay as "calm and impartial" as I could whilst they deliberately verbally attacked me. So I learnt when to judiciously "have to go to the loo" and how to keep as straight a face as possible and refuse to be deliberately driven to tears by them. So - yep...I had to learn to mentally detach and remind myself it was nothing personal/I hadnt had that sort of treatment in previous jobs - so they werent acting in a normal or justified way and it certainly helped when the grapevine told us things they'd done wrong themselves (eg one of them was a thief in her own life, another was having a particularly stupid affair in her own life etc).

After that lot of wotnames I did succeed so well in not being deliberately driven to tears that I basically can't/don't cry any more. Not even when justified in doing so and no-one has deliberately tried to do that to me and I'm safely on my own etc. I reckon I've managed to stay a normal/decent person and not been turned into a "hard lout" by them - and I certainly dislike hard people (with some of the stuff I've noticed from some of those people over the years in a variety of contexts).

If I’m honest, I’m a very emotional person. As I’ve aged I’ve been able to “put my head in the sand” and stop worrying so much. I’m an emotional worrier. If anything I feel I’ve become more critical of others, which I dont like. I’m 70.

I must be in the minority, I’m a bit less emotional than in earlier years. I was at my very worst when pregnant or with young children, adverts made me weep, tears would pour down my cheeks at children’s nativity or dance shows, films, sad or happy endings, books, sad stories, you name it, I could cry over it!

Now I’m just more stoic and less emotional. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

No I don't cry. I keep it all in except when my dad, mum and brother died.

keepingquiet

Yes, I also tear up at the slightest thing but I think it isn't so much my age as living through such difficult times and feeling so helpless to do anything...

I find even the slightest kindness done to me is enough to set me off!

I seem to be the opposite. I find there is so much false sentimentality around it has made me less so.

NotSpaghetti

I am a "weeper" - anything and everything!
Always have been. Happy or sad.
I don't think I've changed.

Me too. My family laugh at me for welling up at the drop of a hat, especially for a kindness.
Since the death of both my younger son and my husband, I’m even “soggier”.

Oh Kate!
I do hope you feel some pleasure (if not quiye weeping with joy) when you come out feeling more "yourself" again though...

Mind you, I cry when I sit in my hair replacement clinic and look at my bald head.

I rarely cry. I have cried so much there are no tears left.

Sorry, no, less and less.

I tear up very very easily. I cried last night watching 24 hours in A and E when an old lady with dementia couldn’t understand her husband had died days earlier. And just now reading on Facebook about a boy self harming. Every day I cry for something.

Thank you for the posts. It’s good to know I’m not alone!

When I was young, I cried at everything. My mother said my tear bags were very near my eyes.

Now I usually tear up at a beautiful piece of music, a really good performance (ice skating at the moment) or a piece of good news. Once I feel the stinging behind my eyelids I have to hide my face from others, in case they think I'm going loopy. Even the accordion man on Facebook can bring on the tears. Oh dear me, what an idiot I am.

I am a "weeper" - anything and everything!
Always have been. Happy or sad.
I don't think I've changed.

No, I've never been the emotional type and that's not changed. I've only ever cried twice over a film. My daughter reckons I've got a heart of stone.

Yes, I feel very sad sometimes, and start regretting things I haven't done and feeling guilty for all sorts of things I think I should have done. It is not very helpful or healthy but difficult to throw off.

That part of the sadness is perhaps to be expected in older age but the world seems so violent and cruel now that I expect younger people also feel depressed.

I definitely am more emotional since I have got older I think it is an age thing.

Have had a tough time this past year or so and often have a bit of a cry in private, will not do this in front of my DH because he is seriously disabled after a stroke and it would make him very upset and confused.
I do feel emotional about other things though and often tear up. However, have been like this for most of my life

I have gone the other way, I used to cry/ tear up at the slightest thing, films , adverts, music it would set me off, but the last few years I have had a few set backs in my life and have found I have become less emotional/harder. I think it is that I know if I start it will just open the flood gates. So perhaps it more about shutting that side down is easier.

I think I reached a new high when I sobbed at the end of Monsters Inc. crying about a cartoon monster and his friendship with a human toddler surely means Ive reached the limit.

I'm the same I cry so easily now, It must be an age thing, getting more sentimental as we get older, I even notice my husband wiping his eyes at Long Lost Family.I don't think it's a bad thing though..

Yes, I also tear up at the slightest thing but I think it isn't so much my age as living through such difficult times and feeling so helpless to do anything...

I find even the slightest kindness done to me is enough to set me off!