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?

Yes
After finding out a close relative had died, after a car accident (luckily nobody was injured), and when I was miscarrying. It's a mix of adrenaline and shock.

A lot of posters on here have this "it never happened to me so it does not happen" attitude. Please remember that everyone is different, and have different responses to stress, panic and pain - someone could have a more robust nervous system and can deal with stress better, while others might have anxiety, depression, other underlying health conditions which could make their response more extreme. Also, there are other factors - sometimes life events catch you so unexpectedly your whole body goes into shock, its basically a fight or flight response which is very primal and I doubt common.

I once had terrible throat infection, was coughing so much I was throwing up and yes, I was on my hands and knees in the corridor crawling to the toilet as I was in too much pain and could not breath for coughing.

I also cried while reading some of the posts on here, not literally "sobbed" but deffo cried.

I quite often shake and cry. It just how I deal with traumatic or upsetting situations.

I also snort my tea over the laptop more often than I should admit to 🙈

Different people react differently

I remember not long after I met my now husband he had toothache and yes, he was literally crawling on the floor (and sobbing) because the pain was that bad.

I've never howled with laughter even if something is really funny.

I've never heard anyone else howling either.

Hmmm - well it depends. I don't often cry tbh. I well up about sports docs or things where people overcome adversity against the odds. I've cried and sobbed about DD SH because I'm at such a loss as to what to do / how to make it stop. But that's like emotional pain and frustration. None of that involves shaking.

My initial response to anything scary / an external threat (like someone crashing into the car or a near miss / or a dog attacking my dog) is anger but I've got an overdeveloped Adrenalin response which sends my heart pumping like crazy and so that can result in a bit of a shaking hand now and again! But it would have to be something really really bad to get me crying and shaking at the same time. Hope not to find out quite frankly.

I’ve howled with grief, genuinely. But not with laughter. The laughter thing tends to be a bit of a literary trope.

I’ve spent a full week crawling in pain, twice. Once when I had an operation for a ruptured cyst. Another time when I was 7 months pregnant with a chest infection, and coughed so much that I tore the muscles in my back.
And for the pp who said you can’t cry for hours on end, I’ve cried twice in my whole adult life. Once after an abortion when I got drunk and pure sobbed for around 4-5 hours straight. I was living with my dad at the time and he didn’t know about it, I had to get my boyfriend to pick me up and we sat in his car in a field for half the night so no one could hear me. And once when I was in hospital and was told dd was ectopic and they were going to cut her out of me the next day, I think I sobbed for around 2/3 hours that time and was mortified as I couldn’t stop in front of the nurses. There’s some ignorant arseholes on this thread

I always thought 'howled with laughter' was just a saying. Maybe emphasising how hard or how loud someone laughed. Not a factual description.

@localnotail this bit that you said: Also, there are other factors - sometimes life events catch you so unexpectedly your whole body goes into shock, its basically a fight or flight response which is very primal and I doubt common.

100%, I had a life event and I have never reacted that way to anything before or since. It was just such a physical overwhelm it scared me. Once in 45 years I just couldn’t control how my body reacted to some news. I hope never to be like that again, it was the worst. You’ve articulated it perfectly.

PS. I like LOG too!

I have PTSD. If anything sets me off, it could be something very small, then the feeling of the trauma comes back and I can quite often end up crying and shaking at the same time. The crying always stops before the shaking which can last a while afterwards.

Yes to crying/shaking at the same time but only the once. Stress response I guess. Ended up vomiting.

Definite yes to 'snorting my tea out' when I've been reading something that I've found really really funny. It feels horribly unpleasant so I try not to do it!