Crying and shaking

Yes to crying/shaking at the same time but only the once. Stress response I guess. Ended up vomiting.

Definite yes to 'snorting my tea out' when I've been reading something that I've found really really funny. It feels horribly unpleasant so I try not to do it!

I have PTSD. If anything sets me off, it could be something very small, then the feeling of the trauma comes back and I can quite often end up crying and shaking at the same time. The crying always stops before the shaking which can last a while afterwards.

@localnotail this bit that you said: Also, there are other factors - sometimes life events catch you so unexpectedly your whole body goes into shock, its basically a fight or flight response which is very primal and I doubt common.

100%, I had a life event and I have never reacted that way to anything before or since. It was just such a physical overwhelm it scared me. Once in 45 years I just couldn’t control how my body reacted to some news. I hope never to be like that again, it was the worst. You’ve articulated it perfectly.

PS. I like LOG too!

I always thought 'howled with laughter' was just a saying. Maybe emphasising how hard or how loud someone laughed. Not a factual description.

I’ve spent a full week crawling in pain, twice. Once when I had an operation for a ruptured cyst. Another time when I was 7 months pregnant with a chest infection, and coughed so much that I tore the muscles in my back.
And for the pp who said you can’t cry for hours on end, I’ve cried twice in my whole adult life. Once after an abortion when I got drunk and pure sobbed for around 4-5 hours straight. I was living with my dad at the time and he didn’t know about it, I had to get my boyfriend to pick me up and we sat in his car in a field for half the night so no one could hear me. And once when I was in hospital and was told dd was ectopic and they were going to cut her out of me the next day, I think I sobbed for around 2/3 hours that time and was mortified as I couldn’t stop in front of the nurses. There’s some ignorant arseholes on this thread

I’ve howled with grief, genuinely. But not with laughter. The laughter thing tends to be a bit of a literary trope.

Hmmm - well it depends. I don't often cry tbh. I well up about sports docs or things where people overcome adversity against the odds. I've cried and sobbed about DD SH because I'm at such a loss as to what to do / how to make it stop. But that's like emotional pain and frustration. None of that involves shaking.

My initial response to anything scary / an external threat (like someone crashing into the car or a near miss / or a dog attacking my dog) is anger but I've got an overdeveloped Adrenalin response which sends my heart pumping like crazy and so that can result in a bit of a shaking hand now and again! But it would have to be something really really bad to get me crying and shaking at the same time. Hope not to find out quite frankly.

I've never howled with laughter even if something is really funny.

I've never heard anyone else howling either.

I remember not long after I met my now husband he had toothache and yes, he was literally crawling on the floor (and sobbing) because the pain was that bad.

I quite often shake and cry. It just how I deal with traumatic or upsetting situations.

I also snort my tea over the laptop more often than I should admit to 🙈

Different people react differently

A lot of posters on here have this "it never happened to me so it does not happen" attitude. Please remember that everyone is different, and have different responses to stress, panic and pain - someone could have a more robust nervous system and can deal with stress better, while others might have anxiety, depression, other underlying health conditions which could make their response more extreme. Also, there are other factors - sometimes life events catch you so unexpectedly your whole body goes into shock, its basically a fight or flight response which is very primal and I doubt common.

I once had terrible throat infection, was coughing so much I was throwing up and yes, I was on my hands and knees in the corridor crawling to the toilet as I was in too much pain and could not breath for coughing.

I also cried while reading some of the posts on here, not literally "sobbed" but deffo cried.

Yes
After finding out a close relative had died, after a car accident (luckily nobody was injured), and when I was miscarrying. It's a mix of adrenaline and shock.

I have snorted out tea and cola from my nose, but never at a MN thread.
I do think shock can manifest itself in many ways, crying and shaking would apply here. I have been sick with shock.
I don't sob at MN posts although some of them are desperately sad 😞

The one I found hard to imagine until recently was being so stressed that you couldn't eat, as I tend to comfort eat when I'm stressed.

I realise now, having experienced it, that the level of stress that stops you eating is much greater.

No. I always think though when someone says it on line..,I’m in bits, sobbing, blah blah they are trying to illicit sympathy from those reading, particularly when the answers aren’t going their way.

Lucky you @somethingisnotquiteright. You obviously have never been stressed or upset enough to experience it.

I don't ever remember crying and shaking myself, but it's not that difficult for me to understand that people react in different ways to stressful situations. And that what constitutes a stressful situation is different for everyone. This is like hundreds of other threads on here where the OP doesn't seem to grasp that not everyone is like her.

Funnily enough (or not so funnily), this happened to me this past Friday.

It was a panic attack that rendered me hysterical, mentally broken and shaking with so much adrenaline I couldn't talk because I was chattering so much.

Basically what happens when you work 15 hour days, 27 days straight with work pressure that was all consuming. I was not ok.

It happened once last year after a similarly pressured time, and once before in 2012 when the palliative doctor told me to call family to the hospital because my brother was about to die.

So yes, only extreme circumstances cause me to shake and cry at the same time but it's only ever caused by intense trauma or prolonged stress.

I have done it a couple of times when someone has said something, or I've read something, excruciatingly funny.

I don't think I have ever cried and shook at the same time though.

I don't think it's uncommon, it's just what happens when you cry and a big old dose of adrenaline is dumped in your system.
Hasn't happened to me often though. I remember crying and shaking once after separating a dog fight and almost coming to blows with the other owner.
Can also remembering one time as a teenager hanging onto a runaway horse that was galloping towards the side of a quarry and I was crying, shaking and laughing hysterically! My brain just completely noped out of the situation!LOL

Did you read her post???!!!

I've had awful things happen to me but I've never had the police come to my door and tell me they found my son's body!!! That is awful. I can't imagine that pain.

I also don’t cry with laughter or snort my tea out when I am amused.

I did it once, and almost choked on an M&M, too. It was during a particular scene in Peep Show.* *

Not usually but it has happened to me a few times.
When my dad dropped dead out of the blue and I was told.
When I was suddenly told something was going wrong with my pregnancy and I had to be induced then and there (I had had a very traumatic previous birth and had planned a home birth that time around) I couldn't stoo crying and shaking even though I was in maternity assessment and it was embarrassing because people could hear.
And another postpartum occasion when I thought I was dying..
It's just shock and fear and adrenaline. I guess it's not just when you are sad.. there has to be an element of shock or fear.

I think it's a very overused phrase on Mumsnet, whether it happens to a few or not.

Crying and shaking when I was diagnosed with cancer - pure fear and shock. Also the same when my waters broke - I'm guessing it was adrenaline as happened with both kids and then settled.

Also had it when suffering with very extreme anxiety and panic attacks.

I'd be worried if it was a 'normal' reaction and not due to the above or similar.