I feel emotionally void at times and have found it very hard to cry; ever since my diagnosis 10 years ago.
Even when my dad passed away in January this year, I thought I would cry but hardly shed a tear ;although poor dad had a difficult time the last 8 months of his life, he was nearly 90 so I keep thinking that he had a good run and it’s good that he didn’t suffer too much, but then I do keep having happy flashbacks to my childhood with mum and dad at home.
I wonder if it’s the drugs I’m taking, I take 50mg Amitriptyline and 20mg of Citalopram.
It’s not that I don’t get sad, I’m sad a lot of the time and also don’t laugh like I used to either.
Is there anyone out there who find it difficult to cry, I used to cry at anything sad but it’s a rare thing these days.
Hi Wendy, it sounds like your emotions have built up a barrier in order to save your tears.
I cried so much in the early part of my problems, that I got totally sick of crying for myself. I kept thinking how ugly I looked when crying…weird, I know!
I seemed to stop crying for myself altogether…until recently…all my carer woes have made me cry a lot!
I also take amitriptyline…75mg at night and I dont feel they affect me in any way, except to stop nerve pain in my bum and thighs!
Thanks for your reply Polls, the Amitrip along with Gabapentin do stop my pain and also help me sleep. It seems as though I have lost some of my feelings, I still feel sorry for other people but no longer cry, I guess I feel that stifling it all up inside can’t be good for me or maybe I’ve just got to an age where I’ve finally hardened up. I remember aunties who didn’t cry and one aunt didn’t cry at her daughter’s funeral and we all wondered how she could keep it together, perhaps she felt numb with all that life had thrown at her, now I can relate to that.
Hello, I have just posted about depression/Prozac and emotions. I agree, I feel down and wearied by being so ill, but I find it difficult to cry for others. I lost my darling Mother a few years ago. I have hardly cried for her but I feel like someone has stabbed me in the guts the pain is so great so it is not as though I don’t care. I can only think about her in small doses because it hurts so much.
But I can cry over minor issues, like seeing a lion eat a gazelle on a wildlife programme or over spilling something on the floor and having to tidy up.
I agree with Polly and think you/I have built up a barrier to help us cope with all of these challenging life events. Self preservation.
Dear Wendy. Before MS, for a short time the Drs prescribed me anti-depressives, citralopram. My brother has just died and I had a new-born who failed to sleep! A side effect of taking citralopram was that it rendered me unable to cry. This worried me and the dr lowered my dosage a little. Also I did read that MS symptoms can involve emotions. Can the MS help line advise you too? Take care Ali
Strange I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot recently.
I’m like you and don’t seem to cry, even when I feel quite sad, and I’m a little concerned about it.
I’m on amitriptyline, solifenacin, tizanidine, fampridine. Just googled them , some of them say they might make you cry, non of them say they will stop crying.
I’ve had quite an emotional upset recently … no tears. (that was a real positive) but really should have been in floods of tears!
Today, fantastic senior manager left work. All the women were in tears except dry eye me!
If anyone can help I’d be interested too.
Saves a fortune on tissues but think I might look a little cold hearted.
Depends who you are, where you are from, life experiences all that sort of thing. I had some unusual things happen in early life and then had three jobs which involved disability, mental health, death. We were the sort of people who felt everything but didn’t cry. I used to call it ‘putting the things in the mental boxes’. Still like that now a lot of the time but I think it is an early coping mechanism that is not used by most people. I had to box things away early on, it makes you feel like you are a bit on the outside looking in as everyone else cries and bares their feelings.
On the other side of things (I cry at most things now), at some point that box will open, it can take a second, last a second, last months or years, or not open at all. We are all so very different.
Thank goodness you have happy flashbacks. If I told you mine it would make your hair curl!!
I`ve just watched to videos on facebook and they both had me choking up in tears.
I dont normally watch anything nasty involving animals, but this one made me linger…I`m glad I did.
It was a native american animal rescue team.
They came across a dog…blonde haired with a sweet face, who had suffered a spinal injury…nothing visible, apart from his back legs not working. It took a while to catch him, as he shuffled a way on his front legs, bless him. Anyway, they looked after him and got him walking properly again. Such a moving (no pun intended) bit of film.
The second video clip was of a 3 year old Big Brother being taken to hospital to meet his new born baby brother. The little lad`s smiles of pleasure, excitement and pride are incredible. Again, I was in choked back tears of joy.
i laugh and cry inappropriately randomly. its very strange but something i have had to learn to live with. i went through a period of emotional numbness and that was hell! it lasted 6 weeks and i much prefer the emotional lability cos at least i can feel something.