You know that sound you hear when you yawn, the sort of trembling, pounding roar of your own blood? I hear that in my right ear, not my left, when I'm at the edge of tears.
What physical signs do you get?
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
No sounds for me. If I'm crying because I'm mad my eyebrows start quivering. And my hands get shaky usually.
Posted by RavenStarr (Member # 2327) on :
Well... I'm a dude... but... ya'know... I'm not ashamed of my more sensitive side... For me... I'd say that usually my sinus area gets really hot, and my temples start to throb. If you're looking for visual physical signs... then it depends on my situation. But usually my face gets read and the veins start to stick out (basically coinciding with the other traits). But in other situations where I'm actually trying to hide my emotions in order to not expose weakness in front of the person that may be causing them or whatever... well... that depends on how bad it is. Sometimes I can block out everything so perfectly that I can look completely emotionless... other times I just smile, with almost kind of a cynical joker-grin. For sound... that depends on the same issues as everything else... sometimes it can be no sound... where all it is, is me standing there with tears coming down my face, or it can be a complete primitive yell...
Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :
I get a tightness in the throat... my eyes prickle. And sometimes that carnival ride feeling as if I'm being tossed about at high speed.
But it depends on the type of crying. Happy crying is different from sad crying in no small measure.
Happy crying is always accompanied by a feeling of overwhelming elation, along with the above symptoms... It was that very same feeling that struck me when I first knew I had met my soul mate -- who is now, of course, my wife.
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
I get flushed and turn away. If someone approaches me and won't immediately go away when I tell them to, they 're likely to get hurt. So, I try not to cry.
Posted by Debbborra (Member # 2538) on :
My mouth gets dry, my throat and head hurt, and my sinuses sting.
Posted by Isaiah13 (Member # 2283) on :
Yeah, tightness in the throat. Although it sort of creeps up on me without physical warning once in a while. Probably due to my repressive nature, I guess. Sporadic breakdown syndrome. I think I inherited it from my mom.
Posted by Avatar300 (Member # 1655) on :
The tips of the fingers of my right hand throb.
Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :
I know I am about to cry any time my wife says: "I know you planned on writing today, but . . ."
Just kidding, my wife is very supportive of my writing.
Crying always sneaks up on me, I don't get a warning. Every time I watch the first twenty minutes of The Right Stuff I find myself tearing up, and it never fails to surprise me. The tears themselves are the first thing I notice.
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
If I'm talking, my throat starts to feel full, and eventually the voice will crack. That's a nice detail.
Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
Thanks. I'm asking because I've used phrases like "on the edge of tears" in writing and the one time I was more specific and described what it felt like to me, everyone said "no one's ears tremble," which made me realize that it was a detail unique to me.
So, since then I've been wondering if there was a common sensation.
Posted by limo (Member # 2470) on :
I get the throat starting to feel full sensation and also my eyes start to feel teary ... hmmm hard to discribe. Like the tears are all there and they're just about to flow - and I get a funny sensation at the top of my mouth.
Posted by Jeraliey (Member # 2147) on :
My emotions are very body-centered, so I tend to feel sadness AS the physical sensations that accompany crying. My main two indicators are my throat closing up (accompanied by a large amount of tension in the sternocleidomastoids) and a very tight feeling across the top front of my chest.
Posted by RFLong (Member # 1923) on :
I get sort of a stinging in the bridge of my nose.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
The last time I really had a good bawl, and its been some time, other people thought I was about to have a heart attack...
Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :
For me, also, the throat-tightening comes first, and if I'm trying to talk (this usually only happens when I'm reading an emotional book to my kids, who never seem to be affected by it), my voice starts to go. The next thing is the feeling of tears building behind my eyeballs (I know that's not where the tears are, but that's what it feels like). If I blink, the pressure of my eyelids presses my eyes back, so that some of those tears can leak out (it seems like). So I don't dare blink, unless the pressure builds up enough that some leaks out anyway, at which point I start to blink really fast to make the tears evaporate or something. But that's usually a losing battle.
Oh, and yes, often it's completely unexpected--especially if something in the book or movie (almost the only times I cry--real life I'm pretty hardened to) takes me by surprise. Boom. But then if I re-read the book or re-watch the movie, I know it's coming and the sensations start before there's any reason for them.
My daughter says that she knows by her emotional state. She doesn't have any detectable physical symptoms, unless she is trying not to cry.
[This message has been edited by rickfisher (edited May 04, 2005).]
Posted by goatboy (Member # 2062) on :
Nose burns.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
It probably depends on what kind of crying. If I'm crying for an emotional reason, I'm usually well aware of the emotion and have consciously decided to allow it to increase past threshold. If I'm crying in response to an irritant of some kind, I usually feel the irritation before I start to cry. But I don't have any particular signs that I'm about to cry.
Posted by Josh Leone (Member # 2365) on :
Right before I cry, I usually hear voices.
"We've decided not to use your article until next month. Sorry we had you on such a tight deadline."
"No, actually it was 'pay on publication,' not 'on acceptance of final copy.'"
"We've lowered our rates since our Writer's Market listing came out. It's now fifteen cents per word, not fifty."
I tend to get a runny nose and my breath starts to catch in my chest when I'm about to shed a few tears.
The breath catching could be good, but you don't see many stories using the nose thing. "Her nose ran like her lover, as he left her life forever."
Might be good for a comedy though.
Josh
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
quote:Nose burns.
Same here.
Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
quote:"Her nose ran like her lover, as he left her life forever."
Ha!
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
I am in the tight throat camp. I also have chest pain. If I get crying and don't stop for a while, the veins in my arms burn.
But I have also gotten very good at not crying. I can rock my head back and forth slowly so the tears get distributed over the eye surface instead of falling.
