What causes a need to cry for seemingly no reason?

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Occasionally I get a feeling like I want to cry, but it's not from being sad or depressed usually. It's more like I just don't know how else to react to the feeling I'm getting (which is hard to identify). I don't know if crying would actually help, I've never actually let myself start crying because usually I'm not in a situation where random crying would be acceptable.

Can anyone help me understand what the heck is going on with me? I don't remember having this feeling (at least not often) before. It's like every day now, even multiple times a day. I don't even know what it is, let alone what to do about it.

I've woken up feeling like that a couple of times recently. I have no idea what causes it. I haven't had a bad dream or anything that would trigger being upset.

Do you think maybe it's stress? I've been under a bit of stress since it started happening to me.

Stress is a possibility. I searched my question in Google and so far I found a couple articles about anxiety.

I've never been able to identify what anxiety really feels like and thought I'd never really had it; many descriptions of it that I've read mentioned excessive worry or fear, which I don't tend to have as I am very logical. But maybe I've had anxiety for a long time and just had no idea what I was feeling and assumed it was normal, and maybe it hasn't cause me worry as much as some because I could see that it wasn't really a valid concern, whatever I was worrying about.

It kinda feels like I want to hide, too. Which would imply I'm worried or fearful of something, but the thing is I can't even identify what it is I'm worried about, so that's why it is really hard to figure out.

Sometimes it's a hormonal, few-days-of-the-month thing for me, but once in blue moon I'll feel like that nowhere near "that time".. I think for me it's loneliness (my roommate is here so little that I feel like I live alone and I have other medical issues so when I don't feel well from those I just wish someone was here with me, not so much for conversation, just to be here in the house with me)

I have moments where that happens - sometimes I can let it out in the shower.

Other times, I get it from seeing someone achieve something - like sensing their bliss.
I also get it when someone dies, whether I knew them or not, but especially if their life is talked about.
Hell, I even get it when I see a very clever ad'.

My psych says it just means I'm passionate, though I'm not sure about that.

I rarely cry from sadness. Most of the time when I cry it is out of an inability of express my frustration with something via any other means.

I cry sometimes as a controlled stress release. Like, if I know the day at work is going to be rough and I'm anxious about it, I'll cry before work to release some stress before I get there.

For me it happens a lot. It is usually because my brain takes a very very long time to process things so it can still be processing emotions from past event even if they happened decades ago. And so if something triggers one of these past events, and the trigger could be so small that I don't notice it at all, the emotions from that past event will come back full force.

I am also very sensitive and can be moved very easily and can be moved by things that don't move others.

Also Temple Grandin explained in one of her classes that if you are a visual thinker, your brain stores memories like movies in little compartments like file folders. The difference with visual thinkers rather than linguistic thinkers is that because these brain files are visual, they can close but they can't lock and be deleted. Once they are there they are always there, So when you have something that triggers that memory, and it could be anything, your brain basically relives that moment with all the trauma and emotion that is attached to it.

I think, you´re on to something.
I have experienced just that, - in times of stress.
Sometimes the word "anxiety" can make me cry (probably because I have a lot of it and it is hard work) and I think: "Ok. This must be anxiety".
At other times, I can be overwhelmed reliving a past experience, that has a link to my actual emotion.
My brain finds a "picture" in the archives, before I can put words on, what I experience:
It just hits me from behind like a freight train, and suddenly I am totally absorbed in a past scene - in the middle of a busdrive or other places, maybe crying.

This only happens, when I am emotionally stressed. Sometimes, it makes clear to me, that I have been building up stress for a while.

I´ve been wondering about that, but it is often stated, that AS people not only have difficulty understanding emotions in other people (I doubt that), but also have trouble recognizing their own.
This could be a compensation for that.

I want to cry right now. It's because my family members keep coming up to me and asking me to interact with them and I just want to be left alone. It's stress.

I feel like this often, except that even when I want to cry I can't because I'd feel embarrassed, even though there's no one else here. I don't get it.

I definitely have trouble identifying a lot of my emotions also especially in the moment. That is definitely a Spectrum thing. Sometimes, much later, when I have had distance from the moment I can begin to identify some of what I was feeling. It's very much an intellectual analysis though but trying to identify feelings and even thoughts in the during the crisis can be extremely difficult.

Hormonal fluctuations.