Can't cry. Baffled

This is no reflection on any others who have commented! I often wish I could cry more. Having come across a couple of controllers, I’ve noticed that people who tend to bully others cry instantly if anyone ‘upsets’ them - it’s the ‘gives it but can’t take’ it syndrome. My late MIL said some awful things to me but one time I dared to answer back, she burst into tears & I felt like a bitch!
I used to cry easily but SSRI antidepressants suppressed it. I know others in the same situation.

I easily can cry but it begs the question as to why do i want to ? I never feel better whilst crying or after a good sob. it just seems to accentuate the pain . so my question is why do we do it?

I hate being a person who cries too easily!

I really wish I could. It's a natural response surely. My husband gets really emotional about so many things but especially memories of when our children were younger. At the moment I'm under investigation because my eyes are constantly watering. Told you I'm weird!

I could become a professional mourner , I cry so easily , always have . I was called Boo Boo as a child . Still the same at 76

CariadAgain - surely "putting on" tears is not the same?

Like Luckygirl3 I'm a weeper.
Happy or sad I am easily moved to tears.

- If people are kind, cruel or just having fabulous fun together. A beautiful sunset, film, piece of art, the joys of nature - sand between my toes... Frustration, feeling sorry for myself... feeling blessed.

"Is she weeping yet" is a popular family refrain.
BUT I laugh just as easily and often feel truly joyful.
I have to warn new people when I can feel tears coming and sometimes say to (for example) health professionals "I'm going to weep when I explain this but I'm OK really".

The tears are quick to come and quick to go. Those who know me laugh about it. I have been like this since a teenager I think. I have always been teased about it a bit but I don't care. It's just who I am.
Maybe I have very small tear ducts?

I didn't cry for all my life. Then after loss, I can't stop.

DGD not DHD.

I went to see The Lion King with my DD and DHD. They were astonished that I didn't cry. I have had so much to cry about in my life that I couldn't cry at people pretending to be animals.

Luckygirl3

I'm not good at much - but crying is my speciality! Children singing always sets me off .......

Oh, me too. And sad films, poetry, beautiful music can set me off too.

So - no Allypoole - I doubt it's anything to do with you - like being "hard" and I can certainly think of "hard" people and the first one that comes to mind is very hard/very selfish/very overbearing/doesnt care if what she does is against the law or anything - and yet she can put on the tears sometimes if it suits her to.

So it's nowt to do with "hard or not hard".

I used to be really embarrassed at how readily I'd cry - and then I got an awful employer that I had to work for for quite a few years. That put an end to the crying basically - as one of their tactics they would deliberately use would be to deliberately upset staff and then wait hopefully for them to cry. It was a form of bullying they used and when it became very clear it was a deliberate tactic on their part (along with a noticeable number of other tactics of theirs) then I clicked that I must NOT cry. I even came across a list they'd compiled for their supervisors on how to upset staff deliberately!!!! I was gobsmacked - but I made sure I took a good look at it...and trained myself into thinking "If I were them and a nasty barsteward = what would I do to me next?" and learned to anticipate their actions in advance pretty effectively.

There was no effective option to leave them - as it was poor-paid etc - but I had figured that the pay etc would be even worse if I left and I'm single...so I couldnt.

I trained myself to "hang on in there" for long enough that I could get away from the supervisor concerned that was trying to upset me that time and wait until I got to a "safe" location - ie the toilets. Then went on from there to train myself not to cry at work at all. I had to learn to focus instead on just how much effort the supervisors were putting in to trying to deliberately upset me. It became easier once I was very clear in my own head - because I'd got a different supervisor from the original one that had tried to provoke me into crying and they were also deliberately trying to upset me and, at that point, I clicked it was one of the tactics they used against staff and I became immune to it.

That's meant that I don't now cry in other locations either - as I'd had to be so strong about not letting them do that to me at work that it then became the case that I still had that "protective barrier" up to protect myself from getting visibly upset outside work as well.

I'm safely retired now thankfully....but the "Don't cry" reflex is still in there and just as well - as it helps me "keep a straight face" generally against any other people trying to upset me (eg some recent neighbours that I had to stop from trespassing in my garden).

Motto - if you have to refuse to be made to cry = you can no longer cry...even when it's safe to do so.

I can cry on demand.
The older I get the more I cry. I sobbed my way through the VJ programme, thinking of my Dad. I cry every time I see those desperate children in Gaza. I cry when I think of the grandchildren I rarely see in Oz. I cry when I remember my old dog Charlie, my late parents, my old house in Scotland where we brought up the family, and I cry every time I think of my late DH. I should have taken out shares in Kleenex. It becomes a bit embarrassing all this blubbing ….😭

Snap! Same here🥲

Aldom, you’re right about certain types of medication suppressing tears. I am on one, and found it disconcerting at first not to be able to shed tears as easily as previously.

*I stand corrected

Sorry, I’m stand corrected, and in any case I didn’t have this condition so not being able to cry post menopause was obvs down to something else.

I don't often cry, even when I have a good reason to. No idea when it started. I didn't cry at mum's funeral this year and I'm sure my brother thought I was unfeeling and hard. Maybe I am

I can cry quite easily but my mum in her later years had no tears. Even when my dad died she wasn't able to shed years.

I was diagnosed with Sjogrens in my early 40’s, along with other auto immune conditions

I can cry tears, my eyes often run despite blocked tear ducts and very dry eyes

Sjögren’s syndrome can cause a lack of tears, is an autoimmune condition which I once thought I had post menopause because everything dried up so dramatically, I couldn’t cry either. Is also notoriously hard to diagnose but luckily I didn’t have it because now at 68 can cry all too easily.
Am wondering if is a post menopause thing.

Blocked tear ducts do not prevent emotional crying.
I had surgery for my blocked tear ducts. Prior to the operation tears constantly ran down my face.
I could also cry emotionally.

Oreo as you mentioned I have blocked tear ducts and have not cried for years. I often feel a good cry would do me good.

I don't cry now really. I have used all my tears up.