Crying and shaking

[somethingisnotquiteright]

Do people really cry and shake simultaneously?
I can't recall a time ever in my life (and there have been some rather hairy moments, including being SA) that I have ever been crying and shaking. I cry when I'm upset and I shake when I'm f*cking cold or have low blood sugar. Never have I cried and shook at the same time.

To all those people who are 'crying and shaking', are you actually crying and shaking?

I don’t really cry much and I never shake. Though I shiver when cold. Which is different to a shake in my view.

I also don’t cry with laughter or snort my tea out when I am amused.

I am a medical anomaly on MN.

Once in my life, after a genuinely traumatic experience. I went into the shower to try and wash some of the feelings away and ending up crying and shaking and throwing up. It’s not usual or normal. This was one time, and it wasn’t normal crying either, I sounded like a wolf. It was such a bereft howl I didn’t realise it was coming from me at first. As I say this was once. People use words so lightly these days, which I think mainly comes from not really knowing what they mean. I’ve seen it on here: rude, vile… no, they were a bit unpleasant.

Sobbing is another one. The number of times people on here are sobbing reading a thread. Teary maybe but full on sobbing at a (possibly made up) post online always strikes me as ott/unlikely

Only on here, usually at not very much

Only when I didn't know if DD was going to survive an illness.

I think when you are really crying and are overwhelmed you shake a bit?

What I don’t get is why adults want someone to hold their hands “handhold please”. Isn’t it more a hug or having someone close by?

I almost forgot the snorting tea thing! Does anyone really snort/spray tea/coffee all over their keyboard?

in the middle of the night in a tent at a UK festival. It was fucking freezing and I’m a massive wimp.

And how long and loud must your laugh be to wake up babies/children/husbands

I’ve done it when my friends told me something funny but I am quite clumsy.

Then you get a thread of 50 folk all saying they'll hold the OPs hand. How would that work 🤔

Shaking is likely from adrenaline pumping through the body, completely normal in certain circumstances - and different in everybody

I hope your DD is ok.

I have been in a similar situation (acutely in fear for someone's life) but I can't recall physically shaking. Crying and being very upset, yes. But to a point of physically shaking? No.

Once, when I was so angry, I couldn't control my emotions.

I work on critical care, I’ve experienced relatives physically shaking and crying, it’s a stress response.

I suppose it’s a good thing you haven’t experienced it.

I do! I get quite chaotic adrenaline levels and so if I’m very emotional one way or the other I shake and my teeth start chattering. It’s very strange! It’s a hormone reaction for me, and also why I can’t have adrenaline at the dentist interestingly enough!

I have but usually when there has been an element of fear or trauma behind the crying, so for example during and after being sexually assaulted I was crying and shaking simultaneously. I have poor mental health and there have been times I have been highly distressed and self harmed quite seriously and then come around and been crying and shaking simultaneously.

Shaking and crying are both ways of releasing pent-up energy/"shaking off" trauma as animals do, but I don't think someone being rude to a Mumsnetter in a supermarket qualifies as "trauma"...

I can imagine shaking after an assault or hideous news. As someone said, that horrible adrenaline surge can make you have uncontrollable muscle activity.

Once, after watching what I thought was my daughter dying in a car crash. She didn't die, but it looked so much like something completely unsurvivable I think my brain just went into complete meltdown. The crying and shaking didn't happen until after all the chaos died down and daughter was safe in hospital and stable, then I just broke down. It's the only time in my life I can recall really shaking like a leaf and crying truly hysterically, and I am a fairly openly emotional person!

I certainly wouldn't be doing so after being shouted at by someone in Tesco car park or something like you see on here.

As mentioned in a pp, I've been in situations where I've been both afraid for my life and again for someone I know.

I've had rushes of adrenaline but I can't pinpoint a time when I've been both 'crying and shaking' at the same time.

I’d say as an every day reaction no, but it’s happened to me after moments of significant trauma (DV).After an event I found myself involuntary shaking and crying. But it wouldn’t be an everyday reaction to minor things for me anyway!

It’s not hard to work out these things are used as phrases most of the time, but can actually happen to people, which is why they say it? I snort tea on a regular basis, usually when I’m in bed with a cup of tea and I read or see spending funny, and I try to hold in a laugh to not wake dh. I can’t seem to cry (I remember doing so twice in my adult life) so I don’t cry and shake. I have started shaking when I’ve experienced shock over something. It’s not hard to imagine someone shaking like I do and crying at the same time over something traumatic.