Although most of us probably won’t admit it, there is always one film that makes us cry. Whether it is when Mufasa dies in the Lion King or it all goes wrong in Gone With The Wind, that tear escapes down our cheek and we have to pretend we have a sudden attack of hay fever so it is safe to blow the nose! Go on admit it, hands up who cried when Obi Wan Kenobi died in Star Wars????
Me? Without a doubt it is an Affair to Remember, it gets me every time! Even when the scene is repeated in Sleepless in Seattle, I still feel a sniff coming on. Why do we watch these films when we know they will make us cry? We know they are going to make the mascara run or cause that embarrassing “oh it must be an eyelash in my eye” excuse but everyone has their favourite go to blub buster. I wonder if it is because we know what the outcome will be and that we recognise why we are tearful, it is a safe and secure situation to show emotion.
So, what if one day you wake up and cannot stop crying? There is no movie playing, no scenes on the top of the Empire State building that you can use as an excuse for the sob and in fact life in general is pretty good. Let me tell you, it scares the bejesus out of you! You can find no earthly reason for the tears and no matter how much you try to rationalise with yourself that you are being an idiot, your brain tries to go into overdrive to search for an answer. Checking off the potential boxes of over tiredness, stress, disappointment, broken heart, financial worries and every other possible excuse we can think of often just makes us cry more because none of them is a reason. But eventually after support, reassurance and a cup of tea you realise that …
A friend of mine used to deliberately make herself cry. She said it was a healthy release of emotion that helped her keep control when things got bad. She used to send the kids out to play, sit down and let the tears flow. Like me she suffered from heightened anxiety and she used her crying sessions as part of her therapy. It never got her down, it just helped her cope. I guess when you have spent most of your life coping with anxious or depressed tears it gets hard to recognise when they are just your body’s way of saying I just need to let go for a moment, there is nothing wrong, everything is okay, lets just let it go!
There is an old Glasgow expression of “she needs a right good greet, that one does”. It means that your nearest and dearest recognise that you are choc full of emotion and need to turn on the waterworks. I guess that there really doesn’t need to be a reason and perhaps my friend was right, sometimes even when things are going well, we just need that emotional release. So I am off to buy waterproof mascara and and a box of hankies to enjoy my right good, healthy greet!
Gx