To ask how to stop yourself from crying

I cry quite easily but went through a period where it was really debilitating in that I was unable to deal with a difficult personal situation without being being very tearful - to my disadvantage as I elicited plenty of sympathy but felt unable to get the answers I needed. Looking back I think it was highly likely hormone changes on top of the stressful situation contributed. Depending on your age/ biology you might find HRT could help - it certainly helped me!

Have your hormones been checked / tested? Are you taking any hormones / have you stopped or changed?

When they moved me from Depo Provera intramuscular injections, to subcutaneous - in addition to other issues, I could just cry on demand. It’s so out of character for me. It turned out the dosing is ever so slightly different, we switched me back & I’ve not had that issue since. Personally I wouldn’t go on anti-depressants until you’ve ruled out hormonal influence. I’m not medical though, this is just based on my experience.

OP, I’m a crier. I cry at pretty much everything. I can make myself cry just by thinking about certain things. I take a deep breath and just think of something else.

What is it that triggers your tears??

My friend's counsellor told her to count down from 100 but in sevens. So 100, 93, 86, 79 etc.
It really worked for her. And me!

I’d like reverse tips - I very rarely cry and would like to be able to cry more because I feel like it would be such a welcome release sometimes!

I’m going through a divorce and have cried four times, about 2-3 tears each time. This is a massive amount for me in one year but obviously given the context is not very much at all.

This explains it better!

www.inc.com/jeff-haden/stanford-neuroscientist-this-5-second-breathing-technique-is-fastest-way-to-reduce-anxiety-stress.html

There’s a method of breathing, I’ll try to find a link but basically you inhale sharply, but then a quick extra one and then purse your lips and exhale more slowly. It helps calm the part of the nervous system that’s gone into overdrive. I’ve found it can help if I’m being emotional, rather than desperately unhappy. Also forcing a silly smile, much like the silly face above, can help me coz I suddenly can’t help but laugh.

Yes I got told once to not look down and into my emotions, look up and out of them. Focus on blowing out. Ideally looking at the sky or out a window.

What are you crying about? What thoughts are in your head at the time? If there’s a root cause then addressing that should be a priority. I’ve been having a pretty shit time of it for several reasons and have had a couple of public crying episodes. I find I can get things under control by very determinedly thinking about something else. The moment I start to even vaguely think about what’s upsetting me the tears come back very quickly. In these situations I have basically done my best to hold it together and rushed home to have a good blub and let it all out. I don’t normally have this problem, just at the moment I’m dealing with an awful lot of upsetting stuff. If you’re having this problem without an actual reason to be upset then I think you need to look for a cause. Hormones would be my first guess.

I hardly ever cry nowadays: it’s normally very minor things that tip me over the edge as opposed to something important.

I hate crying at work because its invariably used against you. But usually by the time I cry irs beyond the point where I can help it

Completely relax your jaw, let your tongue hang out and make a silly flobby noise shaking your flaccid tongue around. It releases tension and also it's so silly it often makes me laugh instead

I’m also ND. I’ve made peace with the fact that I just don’t seem to emote like normal people. Death and things just make me go into ‘practical mode’.
If I do cry, it’s in private and I’m be back to normal within a couple of minutes.
I don’t cry infront of people, ever.

I get this when I’m either talking passionately about something, listening to certain songs, or just because I’m depressed and sometimes my thoughts get the better of me and send me off.

I don’t know how I stop. I suppose I tell myself that I’ll get unwanted attention if I start crying.. and people will ask me what’s wrong and I’ll cry more.

just tonight I was explaining to my husband how I’m gutted that we can’t afford nicer things when we’re in our 30’s, I feel a bit left behind in life. That almost made me cry but o just told myself no 🤣

I’m the same. I thought it was because I am ND but then there’s lots of ND criers on here!!

Im fascinated by people who cry because I probably cry once every year or two 😅
I just don’t get that sort of emotion, no matter the situation.

Are you me? I'm a crier as well. I find I have to stop myself because I feel much, much worse afterwards.

I do have a history of mental health problems, and one reason I like the hypnotic type of sleeping pills is that you wake up in the morning and you have a fuzzy memory of whatever upset you the day before. It really takes the edge off.

and if I'm in public, it's incredibly embarrassing. Sometimes I can get away with saying it's allergies because I do have them sorry if it's just slight tears, that does work.

It seemed harsh at the time, but one time when my mum was very ill, some of her friends were finding it very difficult to deal with me crying. So I really had to pull myself together because if you're surrounded by people who cannot deal with a crying person, you really do feel like an idiot if you keep crying.

Anyway, I tend to think of myself as trying to channel any really tough person you can think of. It might be somebody you've worked with? Or I just say to myself "the show must go on". I mean, what if you were about to go on stage?

I say to myself "put yourself away" - I know that makes it sound like I've popped out of my bra, but you know what I mean.

If you know when it's likely to happen, giving yourself a pep talk in advance is helpful.

I do think it's getting better as I get older. I don't have any physical tips, I'm afraid. But have you seen that clip of Taylor Swift hyperventilating during a concert in extreme heat in Brazil? She's hyperventilating and then she snapped her shoulders back to stand up for the next song. Thinking of stuff like that helps me.

Yes you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth and look up.

I do this OP.

And I find it very hard to control.my emotions when I'm upset even if I'm in a public setting.

When I got my recent , very late, Autism diagnosis it was a bit of a relief to identity my behaviour as Autistic meltdowns.
Still embarrassing though but at least it's given me an explanation.