What is wrong with me? Is anybody else like this?

[17caterpillars1mouse]

Ok my AIBU is am i unreasonable to react like this? What is wrong with me?

Is anybody else like this?

In day to day life I wouldnt say i'm anymore emotional than the average person, but in certain situations I get this ridiculous over emotion that floods me and results in me starting to cry and have to bite my lip to try and stop myself making a scene. It feels incontrollable at times and I dont remember always being like this.

The situations -

weddings and funerals starting - maybe not as unusual but it happens even if i barely know the person / people

Any kind of show - theatre, cinema, gig, kids nativity, especially if there is singing and music but there doesnt have to be

Every year when the year 6s leave at my kids school, even if i dont know any of them. Also school sports day even when my kids aren't participating in the race.

I cant sing along to the radio in the car without getting choked up and starting to cry. It doesnt matter what the song is / is about

Watching a parade at the weekend, had to hold back the tears - no idea why

When ambulances drive past, not every time, but around 70% of the time.

I don't know what comes over me and why, just a complete flooding of emotion. Why am i like this? It can be very embarrassing

I'm the same as this, didn't cry at my wedding or the births of my children (adrenaline maybe taking over?) but I cry seeing someone give birth on TV, other people's weddings, music, TV adverts, films that aren't massively emotional. I can't explain it either.

Maybe you are just incredibly compassionate and empathetic 🤗 Friend of a friend gets v -emotional about things in a way that you wouldn’t expect of an unrelated party eg she cried when a random couple got engaged in restaurant at our mutual friend’s birthday dinner. She was a bit embarrassed afterwards- no reason to be IMO - and said she had gone to a therapist who says she suffered from an “excess of empathy”. Don’t know if that’s an official diagnosis/thing. I think she is beautifully genuine and authentic for feeling so much for others. World would be better if we were all more like her and you, OP.

I’ve been described as emotionally dead inside before now (😂) but tear up at people singing in unison (like a choir, wtf I know), funerals and weddings (but I’ve got better at paying less attention to the wedding and crying less), old people where their spouse has died… god knows where it comes from as I don’t actually care and have almost zero empathy, but there’s something deeply triggering about these things for me.

I don't think so but thats interesting about the princess diana thing. I was 8 at the time and not remotely affected by her death

I could have written this. I often preface things I'm going to say by explaining how emotional I can be as otherwise I could look ridiculous recounting an event which to others would not trigger an emotion but I'm sitting there all teary eyed. It can be embarrassing as I may get upset other something someone else tells me about their hardship and whilst they are not obviously upset I am, it feels wrong to have kind of hijacked their upset. I do wear sunglasses a lot....

So? Who pissed on your chips?🤷‍♀️ @ourSusie

Oh and reading Mumsnet posts where people describe the things that make them cry.

Yep. I look round and I’m the only one full of emotion. Being on antidepressants has dampened it down a bit now though

I get this... not as much as this but certain music does it to me and some films. Always bawl wheb baby born on OBEM or used to watch long lost family and they reunite. I purposely avoid these now so don't cry at them haha.

Embarrassingly, the music at the beginning of the lion king always makes me tearful like why 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I’m like this too. Once welled up looking at a stained glass window.

Sounds normal to well up at things.

Uncontrollable sobbing or being unable to function would be different but welling up and biting your lip sounds like normal emotion.

Oooo off to google this. Thank you

People meeting up at the airport does me.

And yes to concerts, musicals etc. lots of films make me cry. Seeing people o love upset makes me cry as do weddings and funerals.
I blame my mum, she’s the same.

I was recently telling my DH about a thing I heard on the radio about a boy being rescued from the sea, and the tears were pouring down my face, I felt ridiculous. I was saying how well the boy's grandmother had explained what happened , but the grandmother (who was well, related to the child, and actually at the incident) was totally capable of talking - but me, who simply heard it and has no connection to these people, I was a right mess even trying to describe her story. I felt very silly. My DH was v nice about it.

I also didnt cry at my own wedding or at the birth of my children, events where it would seem a more natural reaction to cry. I often cry reading books to my children though

I'm the same with music - my son is a chorister & I've only rarely been able to get through a service or performance without tears streaming down my cheeks (it's just as bad when he's not actually singing!). It's so embarrassing & I hate it - I'm known for being incredibly unsentimental & I actively avoid nostalgia or anything mushy but the choirs get me every time 😕

Just adding. Came out of Les Mis with dh the other week. (I’d told him it was very moving). At the end of the show some people were dabbing their eyes. I said to him “what did you think?” He replied “did I miss something? Did something happen that I missed?” I said like what? It’s something you FEEL, you have to feel the emotion. Nope. Didn’t get it. He’s the Ice Man of SE London.

Omg I am so relieved to read I am not along. I was tough before I had my daughter. Hardly cried since I was a kid.
Now any kind of live music sets me off, any performance, most films and normal situations which are cute but nothing special. I've been so embarrassed. I went to see a performance at a festival and just let it out as I was in a crowd but people were looking at me...it was happy jump up music 😅

I thought it was partying too hard at uni and a few years on SSRIs after. Once I had my daughter I feel like my nerves are completely shot and I'm an emotional wreck...

God I hope it calms down as it's exhausting.

Just been looking into hyper empathy and i think that describes how i feel and experience this. Also says is often linked to Autism and over the past year i have started questioning this. Maybe this is my answer.

I am certainly feeling less alone in this after posting and realising its not just a 'me' thing

Just had to google screaming in the Sistine chapel. Apparently it’s prohibited, then the next page is a mumsnet post from 2018.

As well as the funerals of strangers and all those common things, I cry at donkeys on the beach, old fashioned carousels and I also had a completely unexpected quiet sob at a sing-along carol service last year.

You're a mum maybe, having children has changed me. My children laugh at the things that'll trigger me to cry. It's embarrassing the things that'll make me cry. Your post resonates with me

I’m the same. Convoys of motorbikes / vintage cars / flash mobs / choirs / Mexican waves ….

Humans enjoying being part of a group is what I think it boils down to for me. I quite like it. Feels like a rush. Passes quite quickly ( for me, anyway)

I used to get this reading stories when my kids were little - or actually even before that when I was a preschool teacher. This big lump would appear in my throat when I got to the end of stories that were not even very moving 🤣

I am autistic and sometimes overreacting or show the 'wrong' emotion