To ask how to stop yourself from crying

Pretend I'm at work. I only cried at work once when I was on shitty performance review because "it was my turn" to meet quotas

Overexcited tear ducts is brilliant 😂 that’s basically me, pretty sure I’m not depressed or ND, I’m just a crier!

I’m ND and a real crier. I get overwhelmed by emotion very easily.

I clench my fists and dig my nails into my hands and try and focus on that feeling and slowing my breathing down

it’s something I really struggle with so I absolutely empathise

You sound just like me. I cry at all sorts of silly things. I feel so sad for other people (real or fictional) when something bad happens to them. I've got a chronic illness though so don't have many spare 'spoons' IYKWIM.

I would, however, like to make it clear that I have never cried in the Sistine Chapel!

My advice is to pinch the skin between your thumb and pointer finger whenever you feel you're about to cry. This really helps me.

Thank you to PP for the other tips too,

#did this a lot

When my first business was failing and I was trying to pretend to the world that it wasn’t, I do this a lot. I just let myself cry as when I did it I had been holding it in for some long that it HAD to come out. Ugly crying is good for you if you need to do it . Holding it in is not

Esther Rantzen's trick on That's Life, doing a v sad story, was to ball her hand, digging her nails into her palm.
I occasionally get the urge to cry in public - often over the strangest things - so I know how you feel. Often in the supermarket, I have no idea why!

I also find tilting my head and looking upwards helpful, also keeping my eyes really wide open without blinking. I didn't used to be a crier but I am now! I'm not depressed I just have very excitable tear ducts

Take Sertraline then you won't be able to cry anymore 🙃

I can't..the more I try to stifle it i make these weird oinking noises and its comes across much worse!! Also no one else get that awful pain in the throat that goes up to your eyes and head when you try to hold it in??

I end up probably look odder as I laugh, apologise profusely whilst blubbering..saying "I honestly can't control it" through sobs..

It feels like trying to hold in a cough.

Look upwards. Seriously, look up to the ceiling / sky when you feel it happening, it helps.

clench your bum, sounds stupid but its not possible to cry and clench at the same time.

Since my mum died 20 years ago I cry at absolutely everything - no idea why, it literally just happened overnight. I will cry watching an advert (and I'm not talking JLP tearjerkers either). This is the only thing I've found that actually works, but annoyingly for me it only works while actually clenching so its not sustainable for real emotion. Buns of steel though 😆

Give myself a mental shake and tell myself that I'm going to look a right dick. Also, sunglasses because you have "sensitive eyes" that water.

if you get distracted by your thoughts on a run, you are not training hard enough 😂

But more seriously, does that happen often? For any specific reason?

A burnout at work or something?

Hi. I am like this. I’ve learned not to stress about it. It’s natural. It’s best to run to the toilet and dab your eyes with a tissue x

What is making you cry in oublic? It very rarely happens to me, normally I’m too busy trying to wrangle my DCs or doing something.

I'm not bawling my eyes out, my eyes get wet and tears fall if I don't stop them
Does this happen only is public or at other times also- whilst driving, at home, at work etc?

I'd see an optometrist incase you have blocked tear ducts which remove the excess fluid from your eyes. Its slightly more common in woman.

I think going for a run would do you a lot better than worrying about stress building up when you feel like crying for no reason.

@JamesWebbSpaceTelescope Me too. It often happens when I stop to talk to someone in the street, and they might be talking about something difficult they have been through, or something heartwarming, and I really can’t help myself - my eyes start to produce tears (but I’m not sad). I have always had an overdeveloped sense of empathy (as a child I couldn’t bear stories where the main protagonist tried hard but came a cropper somehow), and I don’t like stories now that don’t have a happy ending!

I have always wondered whether it is an ND trait that I have - I have other traits (but no diagnosis), but my children are ND.

Imagine you are standing in your kitchen making a cup
of tea, and picture yourself doing all the steps in as much detail as you can. Imagine the cupboard where you keep the mugs, open it up, picture the mugs you have in there. Then where do you keep the teabags, imagine getting them out, putting one in the mug, then boiling the kettle etc etc. I don’t know why but it works!

I have leaky eyes. Any emotion and they betray me, even when I am not that upset/ angry. Sometimes it is just relief after an event, even a relatively minor event.

No not found any solution but would love to have some suggestions.

What triggers the tears?

If i am feeling tearful/emotional over something i will take deep breaths and focus on exhaling as well as inhaling, and do some mindful thinking to get a sense of perspective (nobody died, lets work out how to fix the problem, lets focus on the future not the mistakes of the past etc)