Social Question

Grisaille's avatar

What reduces you to tears?

Asked by Grisaille (12048points) January 2nd, 2010
40 responses
“Great Question” (6points)

I know this has been asked many times before, in many different ways. Humor me.

I’m not a big crier.

It isn’t that I lack emotion or empathy, it’s just it takes a whole lot for the waterworks to start flowing. I’ve dealt with death, often. I hurt, I pain, and I do cry – just very rarely.

There is, however, one thing that will cripple me nigh instantly: animals. I grew up “Pet Household” – we always had a cat, a dog, or a combination of the two. Whenever one of them passed, I broke down.

A few months ago, a cat I’ve had for 16 years passed away and – man – I was shattered.

More recently, someone I knew had put down his 15 year old Border Collie, to which I can certainly empathize. On the comment section of his blog, someone posted this.

Yeah, I hit about 45 seconds in before I was cryin’ like a bitch.

What reduces you to tears, without fail?

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Answers

Tink's avatar

The way mom treats me. Even though it’s an everyday thing it still gets to me.
Also whenever I see animals being abused, I can’t handle it either.
That video is both cute and sad.

Excalibur's avatar

9/11, the death of a relation and close friends.

MacBean's avatar

I ♥ you, Tink.

Whenever I cry, it’s over something really ridiculous. My toast burned or the Netflix movie I’m trying to watch keeps skipping or I’m trying to download something and it keeps timing out. That’s not really what I’m crying over; I just don’t let myself cry when I ought to, so it comes out at stupid times like that.

clairemagdalenaclaire's avatar

Jesus, what doesn’t get me crying. I often cry when I see old people dining along. I cry when I fall over and hurt something- it’s a knee jerk reaction that’s carried on since I was a wee girl. I cry every time I hear the Cinematic Orchestra song To Build A Home. I cry when people I love are hurting. I cry when I’m run down and things don’t go my way.

I cry during the seven o-clock news. And bloody ads- Advertisements! Those crafty fuckers get me every time. I’m a walking tear machine.

cyn's avatar

the death of relatives, only if i had a really close relationship with them.

JustPlainBarb's avatar

I’m not a big crier either, but I cry when I see animals or children being mistreated. They are so innocent and helpless .. it just breaks my heart.

jazzjeppe's avatar

I am a sentimental type of guy, mostly annoyingly sentimental and emotional. I tend to be moved by others happiness, so Extreme Home Makeover on telly always ends with me crying a bit. Now this is sensitive stuff, don’t tell anyone…

markyy's avatar

I find it much easier to cry about other people’s pain than about my own. I hardly cry for personal reasons anymore, but mostly about other people when I can’t be of help to them. I wish it was restricted to real life, but it happens all the time when I watch movies too. My imagination runs wild and whether it’s about love, abuse, death or old people, the waterworks come running down.

Velvetinenut's avatar

I cannot get through the Rainbow Bridge poem without tearing up badly.

Zen_Again's avatar

Only my kids can make me cry – usually I’ll just shed a tear of joy or pride, sometimes it’ll be something nostalgiac or whatnot. Very little can make me cry out of sheer sadness. Once in a while – a scene in a movie will trigger a few tears… but they are too few and far between, sadly..

aprilsimnel's avatar

Aw, gee! When I was very small, we had a dog. Smokey got hit by a car and died in the road. I couldn’t stop crying.

When I see people treating each other especially tenderly, I’ll cry, especially if it’s a child comforting another child.

Facade's avatar

Anything sad; anything happy. I cry pretty easily.

ucme's avatar

I’m a sucker for a sob story. Anything involving loss or seperation & i’m gone. Not afraid to admit certain movies will have me flowing. E.T at the end, I know tell me about it sad right! While i’m in confession mode. When Dorothy says goodbye to the scarecrow…... stop i’m filling up thinking about it. Just a big softy at heart. Oh & when my wife wants a new dress or whatever I cry for my wallet, I really do.

shrubbery's avatar

I can probably only give you specific examples, I don’t know if I can really say in general, I don’t cry all that much I don’t think.
There’s something about death, like, I mean obviously I’m going to cry if someone I know dies, but say in The Land Before Time, when Little Foot is following his mother’s dying words and then Cera tells him he’s wrong. I cried then.
And in Little Women, when Beth knows she is going to die and she says she is ready even though she’s only about 13 or something.
And in True Blood, when a vampire wants to walk into the sun to kill himself.
So I guess suicide/accepting death makes a big impact on me.
And in A.I: Artificial Intelligence, I cried when the teddy bear didn’t get to say goodbye to the boy before he “died”.
And in Jodi Picoult’s book, My Sister’s Keeper, I cried so hard at the end of that I almost puked, but I won’t give anything away.
I am sensitive to animals too, I saw a possum on the road, who was injured but not dead and cars were slowing down and moving around it, it was late at night and I was trying to work out who to call but then a taxi came screaming down the road and I saw it run right over the possums head, I was quite shaken up after that. And I saw kitten road kill yesterday :(
I cried a lot when my cat had been missing for a week and we thought she’d never come back, and I cried again when she did come back because it was a miracle.

Gossamer's avatar

onions

jazzjeppe's avatar

…I remember when I was a kid and watched “Love Story” with the rest of the family. I started to cry and I was so ashamed and I had to blame something else i.e a headache. Don’t know if they bought it.

MacBean's avatar

@shrubbery: ”[...] when Little Foot is following his mother’s dying words and then Cera tells him he’s wrong. I cried then.”

ME TOO. There are a few spots where that movie makes me cry. Every time. Still.

gggritso's avatar

It’s been about 10 years since I’ve shed a tear at all; I don’t really know what that means. When I was a little kid, feeling stupid made me cry. I was stubborn, and a pathological overachiever. I completely refused to accept other people’s help, and when I couldn’t grasp a concept myself I would get so frustrated and angry I’d cry.

In recent years only one thing almost made me weep. This is going to sound strange, but it was an episode of Futurama. If you’re a fan of the show, it was the episode where he looks for his brother’s grave. I have an older brother too, and that episode (especially the very end) almost got to me.

chelseababyy's avatar

Thinking about the fact I know my mother will never say she’s sorry.

sliceswiththings's avatar

Thinking that one day my dad could very well get Alzheimers (it’s in the family, and his older brother has it) and no longer be his hilarious awesome self.
Fuck, I’m choked up just writing this one sentence.

Allie's avatar

I am a crier. I don’t cry all the time over every little thing, but if it’s sad or I’m hurt and I can’t help it then I just cry.
Sad movies make me cry, sad stories. Fights or arguments make me cry sometimes (after they’re over I go to my room or something and shed a few tears). I’ve cried out of frustration, like when someone isn’t listening or understanding what I’m saying. If they’re genuinely trying to understand then it’s fine, but if they just don’t give a shit but claim they do it upsets me and I cry.
Another thing that always gets me is thinking about what it’s going to be like when my mom passes away. I’ll probably die a little bit that day.

J0E's avatar

Seeing my mom cry.

J0E (13172points)“Great Answer” (4points)
Irishmar's avatar

just about anything considered “heart warming” and this winter, homeless street people I pass on my way to work, its tough, but I don’t get sad when they are smoking a cig and beggin for money.

Grisaille's avatar

@shrubbery TLBT was pretty moving, yeah.

@gggritso That was emotional. The episode about his dog, however, did me in worse.

You guys need to watch that video and tell me what you think.

gggritso's avatar

@Grisaille It’s a fantastic film. At the point where the switch happened, I actually couldn’t help but smile at the amazing relationship that the two of them shared. Great, great, film.

susanc's avatar

I cry if I allow myself to watch the news.
I cry if a story gets to the point where forgiveness or redemption occurs. But that never happens on the news.

OpryLeigh's avatar

Fear makes me cry, I have a very over active imagination and there are times when I will blow a particular situation out of proportion, fear the worst and break down. For example, a few weeks back I couldn’t get hold of my SO on his mobile for about an hour and I got so scared that something bad had happened to him that it reduced me to panicky tears. Turns out, he’d left his phone in the car.

Seeing people or animals mistreated makes me cry. When I read on the news how some young boys stampled on a fawn until it was dead I cried my eyes out.

mattbrowne's avatar

Watching movies about the holocaust.

OpryLeigh's avatar

@mattbrowne You’ve just reminded me of something else that reduces me to tears. I went to Bergen Belsen some years ago and it was the most emotional trip I’ve taken. I’m glad I went though.

Many historical events can reduce me to tears when I think of how many people suffered or how many deaths it resulted in. For example, anything about the Titanic can reduce me to tears. When I think about how the band on board the ship played right until the end I feel very emotional.

Sampson's avatar

The right song/poem at the right time.

mattbrowne's avatar

@Leanne1986 – I’ve been to Bergen Belsen as well. And to Dachau. Recently I’ve also visited the new holocaust memorial in Berlin. Also a very emotional experience. The architecture is overwhelming. Here’s an interesting description

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe

We can’t undo the past, but we can shape the future. As for the Titanic, the sinking ended engineering megalomania. There simply is no 100% safe technology above a certain complexity level. Probes, satellites, planes will occasionally crash. The same applies to chemical plants or nuclear power plants or any other technology. All we can do is minimize the risks. Like putting life-boats for every passenger on every modern ship.

JLeslie's avatar

Just came across this question. That show The Locator, I wind up crying every time. The worst was an episode where this woman was trying to find a child she had fostered for several years, and then she was adopted out all of a sudden, and they didn’t let her know what happened to her, where she wound up. When they finally were able to see each other again it was so emotional. And this other woman who had given up her baby, but didn’t want to, never wanted to. I cannot imagine. Finally getting to see her again.

Earthgirl's avatar

jazzjeppe I too cry at Extreme Home Makeover, I even cry sometimes at the end of a particularly good episode of What Not to Wear, lol. But what really gets me every time is any type of reunion scene. A serviceman coming home and hugging his wife and kids (or a servicewoman) the miners’ rescue reunion, adopted kids meeting their birth mother for the first time, etc, etc any kind of happy reunion scene starts the waterworks for me.

AnonymousWoman's avatar

I am too sensitive. If I feel like someone is being mean to me (even on this site), I can be driven to tears (even if I don’t always show it). While this can be seen as a negative trait, I actually think it can be a positive one: It means I care. It means I listen. It means I take people seriously.

Other things that make me cry:

I feel deeply, so even when I laugh, I can end up crying of laughter. This feels amazing.

Certain movie scenes that touch me deeply can make me cry… It’s one of those “Awwwww….” moments. A father caring about his child deeply can have this effect on me, even if the person is only an actor in a movie. If you’re wondering, I’m thinking about the movie I Am Sam. There were certain times in that movie where I wanted to cry, but I tried as hard as I could to hold the tears in because I watched it with my then Parenting class.

In A Game of Thrones, there were scenes that made me tear up—the way one of Ned Stark’s sons was treated made me so sad. The feelings he felt made me feel for him deeply. I still do. I wish I could give him a hug, even though he is a fictional character. It’s so unfair that he was treated that way.

What can you get from this?

Pain that touches me can cause me to cry…. and joy that feels overwhelming can cause me cry as well.

I could use thicker skin, but I never want to be a person who doesn’t care about other people, their opinions, and their feelings. It’s just not who I am. If I found out my actions hurt someone, that can make me cry, too. If there’s anything I don’t want to do… it’s to cause someone else hurt (especially immense hurt) of any kind, no matter how much that person might have hurt me. There is nothing so horrifying to me when it comes to what I am capable of as knowing I have been the cause of or part of the reason for somebody else’s suffering.

Earthgirl's avatar

AnonymousGirl I am so impressed to find out how sensitive you are. Let me explain. It’s not that I don’t see it in your answers, but I have admired how you are really able to keep your cool and answer the people who sometimes criticize or attack your answers. I have wished that I could be more like you. I don’t like to fight or become angry and I am very sensitive too. When someone attacks me, unless it is a matter of principle or a work situation I tend to just walk away from it. You stand your ground and inquire that they explain themselves and why they feel the way they do. You seem to really be sincere about wanting to understand what they are saying even when they disagree with you strongly. That is a great quality to have.

I have heard that I am too sensitive and easily hurt my entire life. Like you say it can be a very positive quality. It means you are very empathic and caring. Having a thicker skin may make things less painful, but it also makes you more callous.

AnonymousWoman's avatar

^^ Thank you. Your words mean a lot. :)

It may surprise you, but I’ve wished I was more like you sometimes. There have been times when I wished I could walk away as easily as others seem to be able to, but I’m not always the greatest when it comes to shutting up. :)

Earthgirl's avatar

AnonymousGirl Don’t shut up! Just keep being respectful and civilized as you (as far as I have seen) usually do! Just remember to choose your battles.

AnonymousWoman's avatar

I definitely do need to choose my battles wisely. I’m not that great, though. I’ve personally attacked people (unfortunately). Perhaps you’ve recognized that, though, since you said “usually”. :)

Misspegasister28's avatar

Literally everything does. I’m such an emotional teenage girl it’s annoying 0.0

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