Strong emotions, sensitivity, and crying.

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I've had a problem my whole life.
In certain situations, I will experience a strong spike of emotions - usually anger, and anxiety - and adrenalin kicks in, giving the fight or flight response. I will usually cope with the stress by crying and running away, although I've increasingly tried standing up for myself but with no effect because I'm too emotional to form an argument, and I end up running away and crying anyway.

The aftermath is what is most debilitating. It takes a lot of crying to calm down, and I will go through all the emotions - guilt and shame, depression, and reliving what happened over and over, which starts off another fit of crying. Then I am totally exhausted and a write off for the rest of the day.

Usually what triggers it is some stupid person in some temporary authority, who has made a mistake but blames it on me, or I can see that someone has done the same thing to a more vulnerable person. And then to cover their mistake they dig themselves into their little hole.

Any suggestions on how to prevent the rising storm?

One thing that helps me is a serotonin supplement (5HTP, SSRI meds, St. John's wort). It reduces perseveration and tones down the adrenalin response. Just a dab will do ya. For me it makes me think more 'rationally' and with a more Buddhist sort of detachment from the world of 'illusion'. All 3 types have worked.

I have a similar issue, but for me I know it's due to PTSD.

Mostly all I've figured out is to avoid triggers, and try to anticipate problems before I have a meltdown about it.

I find it gets worse if I'm under a lot of stress, too, so if I find myself getting stressed out I look for something stressful that I can stop doing, or something calming I can start doing.

Thanks for replying I'm already taking one (SSRI) in conjuction with lithium for my bipolar disorder - this combo has been efffective in managing the mood swings for a couple of years and helping in allowing me to recover from the years of not being treated for bipolar. Lately I'm getting some mild depression and combined with some frustrating circumstances this anxiety problem is causing me some issues.

Bipolar symptoms started in my early twenties (I'm thirty now), but the anxiety response I described above has been with me all my life. I wonder if the two have a direct connection to each other? Doesn't seem to be in the diagnostic criteria for bipolar. There is certainly an indirect connection how one will affect the other.

Hi thanks for replying. I'm also an excellent avoider of problems. I try not to make any mistakes at all, to avoid getting into a situation where'I'll get upset. I have even given up things I love to do to avoid this problem of getting upset. It's hard for me to get past obstacles that come up in my way.

I also anticipate problems but it works against me because I build myself up to get upset rather than planning to stay calm. Psychologist is helping me right now with this with some cognitive behaviour therapy but it won't be the solution to everything. It's helped me to realise that perfectionism is making me miserable and that's what I can change, although I suspect change will be quite difficult for me.

The only time I've gotten particularly tearful in company was when I went for hypnosis to stop smoking. The hypnotist just would not NOT make eye contact and after about 30 - 40 minutes I just fell apart from the stress of being pinned to the wall (with aggressive eye contact, so... um...yeah). It was horrible. And expensive. So fyi: hypnosis for smoking didn't work for me. (cold turkey, which doesn't cost a dime, DID)

That sounds really intense, in a bad way. And dangerous. I wouldn't tolerate five minutes of that kind of thing. Congratulations on quitting, by the way.

I'm totally like this. I've been tearful my whole life. In fact, I can't recall a meltdown where I haven't cried.

So there ARE more people of my species. Well it feels like I'm a different species anyway, when others don't know which way to turn -I've tried hiding under desks just so I don't have to face anyone's reaction.

I suppose we're all human though, and we've all got a remarkable range of ways of coping - and so what if I'm sensitive, and I feel everything so strongly that sometimes I can't even speak - even other people's emotions - for that reason I can't hurt anyone at all, and doesn't that count for something?

This is what I am working on. I have been this way my whole life, and while it bothers me, I would rather not do away with it, but just understand it more. Like if I knew why it was happening, and what was causing it, I could do what needs to be done to help myself.

Mine is stress-related and a lot of it is my C-PTSD and anxiety. I am learning more every day how to be less hard on myself. I cannot help melting down, or prevent reaching critical mass, but I do not fall apart any longer because I am a much stronger person than I used to be.

All I can suggest is finding the trigger/s and dealing with them somehow. Then working on anything related to self-esteem or self-image. I mean, everyone could probably improve there. lol

Good on you for accepting that part of yourself. I''ve always wished my meltdowns away - I feel that if I didn't have these meltdowns, I'd be able to achieve a lot more and be a better human being. I see them as the thing that holds me back. I guess it's important to accept onesself as is, before making growth. Hmmm. I can't see myself liking these meltdowns any time soon though. Another paradoxical barrier to work on.

I've always been overly-sensitive. I've always been teased for being so overly touchy-feely. Very few people understand that. As a matter a fact, I sometimes repel people because I'm in so much emotional pain. Unfortunately, when I was born, back in 1957, no one in the General Medical community heard of Leo Kanner, Let alone Hans Asperger. Like mom always said, when talking to another friend of mine mother when I was a kid, Your son is almost like mine, except where your son is willing to fight, mine's (namely me), is so big hearted it's not funny. I've been heckled (sometimes good naturedly) and beat up by girl gangs, and girls trying to get their hand down my pants, then make it look like it was my doing. Is it any wonder I stay to myself? Is it any wonder I'm scared of my own shadow most of the time? It's only been in the past couple of decades, I've been able to break out of that shell, long before the medical community pumped me full of their psychiatric poisons. Even today, I can't tell if its a meltdown, the after effects of what the psychiatric poisons did to me, or me getting overly emotional

It's so hard to trust others after these kinds of experiences. Those who are not sensitive do not know the pain and agony we can suffer from what seems like 'light heckling'. Some kids take a long time to learn not to hurt others and to bully others (others never learn!) It seems like a fun game to them - and why aren't we enjoying it? Others are more malicious. I hope that you have access to a good counsellor to help you recover from these traumas. You deserve to be treated with respect, as it's our type who keeps the world from blowing itself to pieces. Thanks for speaking up.

Sarah, I am unsure how old you are, so forgive me if this is relevant to you or not, but have you ever thought about it being linked to your hormones?

What you describe is exactly what I feel ten days before menstruation. It was very debilitating, and for years I never kept track of it and assumed it was how I "always" felt.

Then I kept track of it on a calendar and realized the emotional flares were always ten days prior to menses. In other words - premenstrual syndrome.

My doctor prescribed me 10mg of Prozac to be taken for those ten days prior to menses only. And you know what? It works. 10mg is also a very low dose, so I have not noticed any negative side effects.

It's definitely linked to hormones somehow. Estrogen, progestorone, thyroid stimulating hormone, and probably most of the others as well. I think this aspect has not been given enough attention in my treatment and it's difficult to find clear cut information about the precise role that hormones play in mental illness.

My menses is all over the place. I do feel a worsening of symptoms and wonder why, and then find out it's due to PMS. I have tried taking the pill to manage this before but found that this made things worse. Changes in the dose and type of pill had a definite impact on my symptoms. I don't take anything now, since I'd prefer to be stablised in my 'natural state' and not risk making any further unnecessary adjustments. Doctors look at me like I'm a crazy person (well, technically speaking I AM a crazy person ) when I explain this choice. But I already take 2 kinds of psych meds and I don't believe in 'polypharmacy' because there's little evidence for its effectiveness.

Anyway thanks for the reminder, it's helped to confirm what I've always suspected - that hormones are involved. I don't think they're the cause, but it might help to keep an eye on things.

I also believe strongly in that.
Maybe it also helps you to keep track of your mood to see if you can find some patterns?
Actually I also wanted to keep track of my mood, but I always forget somehow.

Being FtM Transgender and first having the "female hormones" and then the "masculine hormones" in my system I know upto some degree how both groups of hormones have affected my mood and behaviour.
Now with testosterone I'm less shy, more direct and so on.
Also my Bipolar changed up to some degree. Before it was more a mixed mess with more rapid moodcycling and hardly any hypomanic episodes. Now with testosterone the episodes are more distincted, but also sometimes nearly a bit too high, but still hypomanic and never manic.
So and those changes are all just because of the hormones.