What is wrong with me? Is anybody else like this?

lol I cry like a baby in church, when certain hymns are being played and I sing along to them (love singing) and I get all choked up and cry big time! It’s so embarrassing 😳

I am the opposite. I used to feel things deeply and get quite emotional over the same thing as you @17caterpillars1mouse but for the past year since being perimenopausal I generally feel a bit numb 🫤 I dont get emotional at things I definitely would've before. I dont like it. I hope my emotional side comes back!

Another one here to say that I am pretty much the same as you, OP.

Theatre, films, concerts, singing, and in general any display of genuine kindness.

I recommend the book The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron. The term HSP describes a personality trait.

I’m so glad I read this as I’m similar and thought I was a bit crazy 😅 it’s not exactly all the same, but the singing thing definitely resonated with me! So many songs now I can’t sing out loud (which I like to do!) as I get choked up. It’s so strange! The random things that set me off these days can be unexpected. I’ve also always been quite chilled and not particularly emotional. It’s all since I had my LO I would say. I am in perimenopause but also on HRT and wouldn’t say it has reduced since I started. I think it is more related to my LO.

Yep, I’m permanently on the edge of tears I swear. I also cry when alot of people clap, people at markets when no one’s at their stalls, also if theres like parades of things, such as a truck rally driving through the streets and they are beeping everyone as they go, tears 😆 I’ve also gotten worse in my 30’s since having kids, can barely look at their tiny feet sometimes without setting me off. I’m a very happy person though, so god knows

Not ambulances, but everything else on your list overwhelms me with emotion. Also, watching medals being won, or football teams winning the cup, or anything which inspires empathy in me. You’re not alone x

Me as well, brass bands are just a weep fest. No logic.

Yes, but not the Sistine chapel

I’m not like that at all, but a friend is. Always welling up.

I think this is totally normal! Emotion on witnessing something moving, whether it's happy or sad, is normal.

At least that's what I tell myself! 🤣

Oh songs....

"Forever Autumn" because late DP loved War of the Worlds 😭

And "Slipping Through my Fingers" by Abba, partly because of my Mum, and partly when my son was a teenager.

I also hate funerals that have hymn singing - trying to get through "Morning has Broken" for my Nana's funeral through sobs felt like torture.

Why do you ask this?

I am just thinking of times this happened to me - various weddings, once when my friend’s choir performed at a Catholic Church in Germany, it used to happen when I saw babies. Tess of the D’Urbervilles absolutely finished me off, and I remember having to leave a restaurant and take myself somewhere private while reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
Elgar’s Enigma Variations (due to all the war connotations) and ABBA’s The Winner Takes it All always set me off as well.

I do this OP, but it's not even at typically emotional occasions. I'm worst at fireworks displays! Also churches and live music make me cry.

When I first went to see the Pandas in Edinburgh zoo I balled my eyes out so much multiple people came over and asked if I needed help 🤦🏻‍♀️
Nope just crying coz I've seen a real panda in real life like an absolute potato 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

I also cry at cute chubby babies 😬

I think it's quite distasteful to call this empathy. Not the normal responses, like to a wedding or funeral, if it is in reaction to seeing the bride be incredibly happy or the mourners be devastated.

But empathy is the ability to read and understand other's emotions and a lot of what OP is talking about is her projecting an assumption about the meaning of something she's seeing and then reacting to that. Which isn't empathy at all. It's more hyper-sensitivity than hyper-empathy.

Same, Queen same. 30's pr 40's? Perimeno or menopause. We are also living in a rapidly evolving and changing world; and that world right now, is very stressful, nasty, hard, fast paced, digital. We've lost a lot of traditions, homely gatherings, family time, kindness, respect - It’s a lot to carry on your shoulders. I find myself feeling increasingly overwhelmed and upset, add to that my AuDHD, perimenopause...I'm an explosive tear bomb.

You could also be extra sensitive to music (it's a thing! Look it up!), to triggering noises - Subconsciously worrying whether the person in that ambulance is OK. It could be that you're an extremely empathetic person and you feel strongly about the contemporary world around us.

Cry as much as you need to, but do remember to look after yourself. Join a mental health group, speak to your GP. There are things out there to help you. It's OK to ask for help. We all need help at some point in life.

happens to me too - often at events with crowds , theatre , football matches, it’s embarrassing

I've never been a hard faced bitch but pre kids I was certainly much more stoic/practical, rarely cried etc. However my eldest was born and bam suddenly I get all the feels and the swell of emotion/tears at stuff that doesn't remotely affect my life/complete strangers! I blame hormones 🤷🏼‍♀️

I used to be like this. I used to cry a lot in situations which were quite normal every-day not tragic things for everyone else. It was awful and horribly embarrassing too, I’m sure I came across as an attention-seeker, but I really couldn’t stop.

On the other hand, in real serious emergencies like an accident or someone in hospital I would always completely keep my cool and just deal with it, without showing or even feeling any emotion.

It wasn’t until I was in my early thirties that I understood that I had been a victim of abuse throughout all my childhood and formative years. Now, many years of therapy later, I very rarely am overcome with tears in ordinary everyday life. On the other hand, I’m no longer completely dissociated when there is a real tragedy (I realise now that is what was happening); now I can feel and show appropriate emotion in those situations.

It took a lot of time and a lot of therapy!

It might not be at all relevant to your situation OP - I just thought it could be interesting to share this perspective.

I occasionally cry with happiness as well as being moved easily to tears- I guess I’m just very emotional.
Have felt very embarrassed at a as couple of recent funerals where I wasn’t close family, when they were holding it together but I think everyone is in their own emotional bubble so didn’t notice.
I spoke to a friend who is a psychiatrist and I don’t wish to label myself but she thought that i probably have mild PTSD. When I was 14 my father committed suicide and I didn’t cry hardly at all, but now when I attend funerals it all comes flooding out.
I bit like all the sobbing when Princess Diana died- they weren’t really crying about her sad death but it triggered unresolved grief that they were holding on to.

I rarely well up at films, but singing - that’s my Achilles heel. Whether it’s hearing sweet little childrens’ voices singing plaintive songs, or singing such songs in a choir myself - it’s really annoying when my mouth trembles & the welling up starts, I don’t want to make an exhibition of myself but it just gets me!!

I'm exactly the same. If I see a homeless person on the street, or an injured or dead animal on the road, i think about it for the rest of day. The other day I crow staggered into my house with a broken leg, obviously in pain. I put it in a shoe box and took it to the RSPCA (despite knowing that crows can be vicious). And don't get me started on hearing about horses that are injured or die whilst racing 😮‍💨

In real life I do not show emotions. Didn't even cry at my own father's funeral. Yet at gigs/films/tv/books/music even adverts can set me off in an instant. Had to step outside the class in English multiple times because my sobbing was distracting the other kids in class when we watched Of Mice and Men, Goodnight Mr Tom and Romeo and Juliet.

My DD thinks it's because in real life I have to be "in control" at all times as a trauma response to my chilhood but when consuming media my bahaviour isn't effecting the situation so I can release it. Think she is on to something to be fair.