What do you get overly emotional about?--Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), October 26, 2000

Answers

I'm prone to crying when I get sad or angry, and sometimes when overwhelmed by something joyous. In any case, it's a great release for me. So let's just say if crying were an Olympic event, I'd have so many gold medals I wouldn't have a place to store them.

-- Becky (becky-says@diaryland.com), October 27, 2000.

I get overly emotional about everything. It started about the time I had my first child. Until then I was on the same page as Al, feeling that it was slightly wrong for a man to display sadness. Now, those stupid AT&T commercials about families connecting long-distance make me nearly bawl my eyes out. I often get teary reading the human interest stories on the way to work -- desperately blinking so that I dont actually shed a tear and notify all my fellow commuters that they are sitting with a freak

My theory is that this change must be hormonal. Now that I've got little children to protect, some new element in my bloodstream must be making me weepier and more nurturing. Oh, well.

-- Tom Dean (tsd@ogk.com), October 27, 2000.

Rocky Top. Not the bluegrass version, but the version as played by UT's Pride of the Southland Marching Band. When I hear it, my eyes get misty. I'm fully aware of how pitiful that is, and am quite embarassed about it. Nevertheless, my eyes get misty, and once or twice I got so choked up I couldn't sing the chorus.

It doesn't even have to be during a game. I have a tape of it I play for my daughter sometimes(she's 3 and loves the song). In the living room, my eyes begin to mist up.

Rocky Top. Whoda thunk it??

-Kev Summitt, Knoxville, Tennessee (of The Long Branch Chronicles - http://clubkev.tripod.com/longbranchchronicles-index/)

-- Kev Summitt (Kevsummitt@aol.com), October 27, 2000.

Everything! Little House on the Prarie, bad country music songs, hallmark cards, you name it.

-- AJ (joijoijoi@hotmail.com), October 27, 2000.

Again -- what is the definition of ++ overly ++ emotional ? If I am moved to tears over a book, a movie, or a real life demonstration by someone I love that they are what I prayed for them to be. Things that happened, such as when I walked our youngest daughter down the aisle and the comments we made to each other as we went. A picture of that shows the joy in my soul but cannot show the depth of feeling in my heart. Now when I tell about it, tears flow and I just let 'em drip. Is that "overly" emotional ? I don't think so.

-- Denver doug (ionoi@webt.net), October 27, 2000.

The Goodbye Girl - starring Marsha Mason and Richard Dreyfus. A song by Francoise Hardy in French which I'm embarrassed about too. Seeing other people's bereavement and knowing there's nothing I can do to make it better. I get overly emotional about 6 hours into a whisky and red wine hangover.

-- Lambert (lambert02@yahoo.com), October 29, 2000.

I'm a crier. I cry at supermarket openings, Hallmark card commercials, and sappy movies. When something *really* sad happens, I'm a fountain. I've just put my wonderful Australian friend/visitor on the plane to return to the other side of the world and I'm totally wiped out today.

This is a good day to buy stock in Kleenex.

-- Bev Sykes (basykes@dcn.davis.ca.us), October 29, 2000.

Once upon a time, not much. I was proud of the fact that it took a lot to make me cry. But that has changed over the years. Boy, has it ever! Just the other day I started crying while watching STEEL MAGNOLIAS. Now, I hate tear-jerkers as a rule (I've never seen TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and have no desire to), but STEEL MAGNOLIAS, that's a good movie. And SHADOWLANDS. I cannot watch SHADOWLANDS without bawling like a big baby.

Last week I was watching PSI FACTOR (a recently defunct paranormal syndicated series currently showing on TNT) and the lead character (played by Matt Frewer, whom I adore) thought his teen daughter had died. When he heard her voice say "Daddy", and he looked up and saw her standing there, then ran and swept her up in his arms, holding her tight, well, I was lost.

I'm overy emotional about my nieces and nephews. I have eight total, and I love them all so much it hurts sometimes. Sometimes just watching them play and laugh makes me want to cry.

Back in the days when I updated my journal, I wrote an entry about how overly sentimental I am.

-- Carol (webgal@ordinarygoddess.com), November 07, 2000.

Anything, everything, and nothing. I cry most of the time with no reason to. It must be hormonal. Maybe I'm depressed. I don't know.

-- Stefanie Clayton (stefanie31782@msn.com), April 16, 2002.

I cry when I'm outraged and, usually, that's the worst possible moment to show weakness.

-- anderwillow (anderwillow@aol.com), May 04, 2002.

movies if they are sad i will bawl like a baby. if family and freind hurt i bawl

-- steve donaghy (rdwelder@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

Yeah.. everything. I think I've been this way my entire life. As a child, I remember telling my sister of events that hurt me.. and she would say I was "too sensitive". It interfered with work sometimes.. and remember people saying things like.. "Oh. you're just too sensitive" or "Oh, just let it roll off your back" when reacting to something someone did or said that I felt was unjust.. and would go over the event in my head.

I cry at any movie or show with animals like "Free Willy", but especially dogs or cats; any unjust event. (I remember clearly as an adult, crying over "Lassie, Come Home".) In the movie, "Shawshank Redemption", it absolutely kills me during the sequence in which the old man, "Brooks", played by James Whitmore, who when after being released from prison, doesn't know what to do "on the outside", releasing and saying goodbye to the bird he has always taken care of. (I won't go into the rest, if someone has not seen it, but for any who has, you know what I mean.) When I first saw this, I had rented it, so I turned it off for a bit, to cry my eyes out. But if the movie is on, I will sit through that part, KNOWING it gets to me. I am upset generally whenver I see a homeless person..or a child who appears to be in a bad situation and become more affected by some in particular.

Currently, I am really messed up over a dog I've observed who is obviously being neglected. I felt the need to get involved in seeing if he could have a "better home, elsewhere"..let me tell you, it is not as simple as you might think.. and has caused me a lot of emotionalism, since I don't have the control I would like to have in this situation. It is not over yet, but I'm hoping for some resolve soon. I allow myself to think about him sitting there, being neglected, as the "animal control" folks have not been able to effect change yet, and find it difficult to detach from it.

Anyway.. I just happened to see your site, as I was looking up "hypersensivity".. (you asked..) so, there you are. I know it causes me problems and don't know if it is something I can change.. but I see that I am NOT alone. Thanks for letting me express myself. - Lo

-- Simplilo (simplilo@aol.com), November 18, 2002.