Quote from: James-Allen on August 21, 2008, 12:10:33 AM
Arch: I DON'T cry, that is something that I do not do. Call me old fashioned but It is the worst of all imaginable vulnerabilities to me, and I will soak in it before I'll shed tears.
Well, I hate hate hate to admit it, but I do cry when things become unbearable. It doesn't make me feel better, either. I've heard countless women and girls say that they feel better after a "good cry," but that just doesn't work for me. As for the men, they mostly don't admit to it, so I have no idea what it does for them--my partner says that it doesn't make him feel better, but that's not a very big sample size. And, yes, I get "old fashioned" about it, but I also get, er, new fashioned, too, but in a bad way.
Let me explain. I tend to see crying as the worst possible betrayal of myself. Even if I am alone when I let loose, I hate the vulnerability that it exposes, and I feel humiliated afterward. I beat myself up about it, call myself names. (Yeah, I'm an idiot. I already know that.) So to avoid the humiliation, I suppress until I am in physical pain and can't hold back anymore. When I let loose, all I really do is relieve pressure and remove the physical pain--and then feel miserable.
This (at least for me) hasn't been a healthy response at all. Only this week did I realize what a double bind I consistently put myself into: if I "give in" to my emotions and express them by bawling, then I am a weakling and a wuss; if I fight and suppress and DON'T cry, then I'm being a coward. So I think that I should be traditional and manly and stoical, but I also have the more enlightened view that I should be in touch with my feelings and express them. The two sides duke it out, and I'm caught in the fricking middle.
It's a terrible way to live, especially when there's a lot of pain floating around.