Tips to stop hormonal furious tears at work in the short term

[Maximo2]

Under a lot of pressure at work (teacher, SLT) but totally used to that and generally cope well under stress. Have been on HRT for a year and have been fine. What’s new are angry tears and it’s doing my head in (not at kids, I hasten to add - at adults who are senior to me). I never cry at work, so this is new. And I hate it, it undermines my authority and makes me look unprofessional. After a difficult meeting with advisers yesterday I have cried angry tears ever since and they are still coming this morning. How can I stop them? I need to go to work!

I've had this twice in my life, both times I was under extreme stress and had to take sick leave to get myself back in the game.

SLT teacher on HRT here too and I could have written your post, down to angry tears after impossible meetings with LA advisers. I've taken a mental health day today to:

1. Get some distance and hopefully avoid a mental breakdown
2. See the GP for ?stronger HRT

Crying like this releases pressure, if you don't want to cry at work then finding other ways to release that pressure, like stress balls or something might be helpful.

And at home, have a cry, write down all the things that annoy you and rip it up, scream into a pillow. Get that tension out.

Often when things have got to this point there really is no alternative but a sick day though, better to take one now than suffer complete burn out. And IME this is an early sign of burn out, not being able to suppress tears.

If you can excuse yourself. Go to the bathroom and give yourself permission to cry those angry tears. They want to come out for a reason OP. The more you try to suppress it the worse it may get.

You sound burnt out. Are you?

Thank you all for responding, really kind posts 😊 Managed to stop my eyes leaking enough to put make up on and was my usual self today. I would have taken the day off, I did feel like I just could not stop - but one of the many beefs of the advisers is absence which they insist is higher than anywhere else. I’m never ill apart from one mild bout of Covid last year but I still felt one day today might ‘waste’ the three occasions I am ‘allowed’. Will keep them up my sleeve for next time.

I hope today did you good, @NinetyNineRedBalloonsGoBy and that you feel a bit better this evening. Think we both deserve a big glass of 🍷or two this evening x