Am I broken?

[Benjoir]

For years now I've been unable to cry.

This whole thing going on in Ukraine makes me so sad. I watch the news and hear awful things about people dying, people without food, children sleeping in train stations. I want to have a good cry about it because it's so bloody sad, but the tears just don't come.

I've been like this for years. A month ago, I heard my (estranged) mum might have cancer, nothing. I heard my aunt died, nothing.

What the hell is wrong with me??!!

People respond differently to extreme sadness; some people cry some don’t. If you still feel sad then no you’re not broken. If you didn’t feel any emotion then that would be odd yes

I, too, don’t tend to cry but it no longer worries me as someone I know, and admire, told me that she very rarely cries and it made it feel more ‘normal’. I have had some very sad events in my life but the tears just don’t seem to come but, strangely, I can feel my eyes watering slightly when I’m out shopping, for instance, and not thinking about anything! I think, for me, the sadness sometimes has to find a way of seeping out 😁

I know someone who said they don't cry as an adult because of all the years suppressing tears when growing up as crying meant their parent had 'won'. (Said parent wasn't abusive as such but definitely unreasonable and prone to outbursts.) Doesn't mean they don't feel the same but can't express it outwardly.

I cry too easily, it drives me insane but I can't change it, it's me. If you are the other end of the scale, then maybe that's just you. Always outliers to 'normal after all.