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 was shaking and crying last night 😳 probably not how you mean though. I have an illness that can cause the excessive release of certain hormones and my body goes haywire, I felt like absolute shit and cried because I felt sorry for myself.

But you are making them because you don't believe that anyone can be affected in a different way to you, because nobody can have had it worse.

Agree OP. Add to that the "in so much pain I was crawling". Yeah, always gets a 🙄 from me. I live in constant pain and the thought of crawling when in extreme pain is just not possible. Using walls to stay upright, yep, totally get that, but crawling uses way too many muscles to be pain friendly IME.

I have daily panic attacks multiple times a.fay, severe OCD, panic disorder and other anxiety disorders, ADHD and physical health concerns. I'm always teetering on the edge and crying and shaking at the same time for me is typical of one of my really severe anxiety attacks and comes out of no where. I've also had both at the same time after a bad car accident, after my brother died but also for something alot more minor, like a minor argument or inconvenience.

I spend a lot of time trying not to cry in public at the moment, and suppressing it makes me shake.

I also remember shaking uncontrollably when I got a phone call to say that a close friend had been found dead. No crying, just shaking. Really horrible feeling.

I'm always a bit puzzled by people who claim to have been crying for hours on end. Even when in the depths of grief, I haven't done that, and couldn't do it, not least because after a time I just get exhausted.

Not even joking, I cry and shake.
Not every time I cry, granted. But it depends how upset I am, how angry, how hurt, how scared, if I'm being goaded, if it's developed into a panic attack or not etc etc.

That being said however, I have diagnosed emotional dysregulation & GAD (possible BPD) so ig that's pretty typical of that diagnosis?

EDIT; Sometimes I can cry for hours. Thought I'd mention this as I saw PP have mentioned not being able to understand those who do this, unfortunately it's not within my control and I very much wish I wouldn't as it makes my eyes swell up something chronic and is unbelievably painful.
My breathing hitches when I cry and it starts a very hard to get out of cycle.

@somethingisnotquiteright I don't get what you are getting at. Crying and shaken is a stress response normally associated with adrenaline.
Certain situations affect people in different ways...

I have witnessed a lot of traumatic situations being a nurse for 17 years with acutely ill patients and palliative patients. Both young and old.
I've resuscitated people when I've been off duty, sexually assaulted at 13. Been with numerous close relative when they were dying and died infront of my eyes.

The only thing that got me crying and shaking was my beautiful husband having a seizure and turning blue in front of my eyes.....he now has epilepsy. I've been with him for 21 years and we're only in our 30s.
I thought he was going to die.
I have nursed many patients who have had seizures and practically wise I knew what I had to do to keep him safe as possible.
I ended up having treatment for PTSD in the form of CBT then EDMR therapy......

I 100% cried and shaked on numerous occasions and have lots of panic attacks where I couldn't sleep...

Traumatic deaths where people have bled out of every orifice is horrific and I have cried on those situations.

But my lovely husband being unwell affected me the most and made me unwell

My 2yo does. Last time was this evening, when she lost a bit of blue tak down the radiator.

When I've had panic attacks I think so, yes.

awww. Did she get it back lol.

Crying and shaking when I was diagnosed with cancer - pure fear and shock. Also the same when my waters broke - I'm guessing it was adrenaline as happened with both kids and then settled.

Also had it when suffering with very extreme anxiety and panic attacks.

I'd be worried if it was a 'normal' reaction and not due to the above or similar.

I think it's a very overused phrase on Mumsnet, whether it happens to a few or not.

Not usually but it has happened to me a few times.
When my dad dropped dead out of the blue and I was told.
When I was suddenly told something was going wrong with my pregnancy and I had to be induced then and there (I had had a very traumatic previous birth and had planned a home birth that time around) I couldn't stoo crying and shaking even though I was in maternity assessment and it was embarrassing because people could hear.
And another postpartum occasion when I thought I was dying..
It's just shock and fear and adrenaline. I guess it's not just when you are sad.. there has to be an element of shock or fear.

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

I did it once, and almost choked on an M&M, too. It was during a particular scene in Peep Show.* *

Did you read her post???!!!

I've had awful things happen to me but I've never had the police come to my door and tell me they found my son's body!!! That is awful. I can't imagine that pain.

I don't think it's uncommon, it's just what happens when you cry and a big old dose of adrenaline is dumped in your system.
Hasn't happened to me often though. I remember crying and shaking once after separating a dog fight and almost coming to blows with the other owner.
Can also remembering one time as a teenager hanging onto a runaway horse that was galloping towards the side of a quarry and I was crying, shaking and laughing hysterically! My brain just completely noped out of the situation!LOL

I have done it a couple of times when someone has said something, or I've read something, excruciatingly funny.

I don't think I have ever cried and shook at the same time though.

Funnily enough (or not so funnily), this happened to me this past Friday.

It was a panic attack that rendered me hysterical, mentally broken and shaking with so much adrenaline I couldn't talk because I was chattering so much.

Basically what happens when you work 15 hour days, 27 days straight with work pressure that was all consuming. I was not ok.

It happened once last year after a similarly pressured time, and once before in 2012 when the palliative doctor told me to call family to the hospital because my brother was about to die.

So yes, only extreme circumstances cause me to shake and cry at the same time but it's only ever caused by intense trauma or prolonged stress.

I don't ever remember crying and shaking myself, but it's not that difficult for me to understand that people react in different ways to stressful situations. And that what constitutes a stressful situation is different for everyone. This is like hundreds of other threads on here where the OP doesn't seem to grasp that not everyone is like her.

Lucky you @somethingisnotquiteright. You obviously have never been stressed or upset enough to experience it.

No. I always think though when someone says it on line..,I’m in bits, sobbing, blah blah they are trying to illicit sympathy from those reading, particularly when the answers aren’t going their way.

The one I found hard to imagine until recently was being so stressed that you couldn't eat, as I tend to comfort eat when I'm stressed.

I realise now, having experienced it, that the level of stress that stops you eating is much greater.

I have snorted out tea and cola from my nose, but never at a MN thread.
I do think shock can manifest itself in many ways, crying and shaking would apply here. I have been sick with shock.
I don't sob at MN posts although some of them are desperately sad 😞