Expressing your Emotions/Crying

[Zeostar]

How do you feel about expressing yourself/feelings? How often do you cry? Do you find it easier to do offline or online?

I admit I can be heavily stoic. Not an easy person to make laugh or smile, not good at showing my excitement for things either. However something significant enough usually gets emotion out of me. I'm horrible at keeping myself composed with things related to death (like losing a pet, family funerals, visiting someone dying). I also cried slightly seeing my sibling get married.

Also I'll credit @sheep because I saw a thread from them called "-smiles"- but i'm not sure about bumping a topic from January. Anyways that's where I got the idea.

 

[colours]

people irl say ALL the time that i smile a ton, and i do! when i go places, whether it's work or really anywhere else, i truly believe a smile and a good mood is contagious. i'm not even a social person in the slightest, i just firmly believe in expressing outwards positivity when and if i can.

negativity on the other hand... i express privately. or try to, anyway. i very rarely cry in front of people, and when i feel an anxiety attack coming about, i usually go somewhere private to cry out the tears first and let my anxiety pass. because i tend to be pretty non-verbal due to this (or my brain is too jumbled up to make any sort of coherent sense), i don't feel like telling people who do notice what's going on, which probably worries them even more but... ah well.

but yes, i am fairly expressive. i suppose the one emotion i don't express often is anger, because it takes a lot to get me angry about something. the most i get is frustration and disappointment, but full on anger i try not to allow myself to feel since i dont want my emotions to become so strong as to cloud my better judgment.

 

[Devalue]

Tends to be closed off. Experienced too much teasing and too many people trying to get a rise. Dwarfs most incentive to be outwardly emotive. Was not very expressive to begin with either.

Faces additional issues between real-life and online.

Real-life: Confuses people with default facial expressions. Developed new ones in response. Reflects personal feelings poorly, however. Exaggerates them for clarity. Amplifies the desired intensity too much.

Online: Mulls over what and how to say things. Aims to be concise. Hammers out most of the emotion. Comes across as robotic. Feels comfortable with that, though.

 

[moon]

i'm an open book and turning a page brings a whirlwind; IRL you'll always know what i'm feeling because if i haven't already told you in 160589 words, i'm practically beaming it out visually. it's a bit annoying at times, that i have trouble being reserved.

 

[gimmepie]

I'm terrible at expressing emotion :')
I have a near-perpetual poker face and I don't open up to others easily.

 

[StCooler]

Kinda like Colours, I am always smiling in real life. As far as I can tell, people only know me as a forever-smiling guy. When I am around people, I wear that smiling mask all the time. Doesn't mean it's false though. Being around people changes my mood.
This is probably a super-power because nobody ever guessed I had some mental issues during a few years. Also, I never cried before having those issues, and I have not cried since medications solved them. And I've never cried while not alone.
Regarding death, I am very insensitive, even in my family. For now I've only got family members getting very ill for a few months before dying, so I was expecting (but not hoping for) death. I don't know how I would react if someone died suddenly from an accident.

The vibes I get from society is that men should always be either neutral or happy. If you're male and feeling down, nobody is going to help you and everybody will probably reject you. Women will flee because it's not manly to feel down; and other men will mock you because you're one challenger they don't have to worry about.
I can't change society, so I comply.

 

[ReKoil]

Other than laughing at jokes or when I'm in a good mood it all stays under wraps when in public. Forcefully.

Like cooler said, crying in public here for a guy is not gonna turn out well. I will hide it, and then cry when I'm alone without anyone to judge me.
Same with anger. It gets hidden till I'm alone and have a videogame or something where I can take it out on poor enemies. Suppose this might mainly be wanting to avoid a fuss/trouble.

 

[Nah]

I haven't cried in a long time, and at this point I think that literally the only thing that could make me cry is excruciating physical pain. I'm also not the sort to be easily angered.

But this doesn't necessarily mean that I'm ultra-stoic either. I find that (mainly irl) I can often be somewhat excitable and animated, though quite frankly I kind of hate that. It feels like I'm not in control of myself, and I sort of wish I was stoic. Then there are certain feelings that I hide pretty well offline that I don't online. People more familiar with me here will know that I've never been subtle with how I feel about myself, the depression and lack of self-esteem and all that.

 

[Zeostar]

I haven't cried in a long time, and at this point I think that literally the only thing that could make me cry is excruciating physical pain. I'm also not the sort to be easily angered.

But this doesn't necessarily mean that I'm ultra-stoic either. I find that (mainly irl) I can often be somewhat excitable and animated, though quite frankly I kind of hate that. It feels like I'm not in control of myself, and I sort of wish I was stoic. Then there are certain feelings that I hide pretty well offline that I don't online. People more familiar with me here will know that I've never been subtle with how I feel about myself, the depression and lack of self-esteem and all that.

Sometimes I would rather be this way, excited and animated. How I feel internally I never feel comfortable expressing externally, and it can be rather awkward if someone gives me a gift or shows me a video. I usually just have to try and chuckle or come up with a quip. My greatest comfort is often from doing things alone as it lets me feel expression to my leisure, such as watching movies or just video games. Bonding with animals makes me feel a similar way, particularly with dogs.

 

[colours]

for me, being excited and animated takes a lot of energy out of me. this is because i'm naturally introverted and quiet, so really the excited and happy persona is really just... that. a persona. that's not to say that i'm actually a grump or anything, but i'd like to take lengthy breaks from being energetic and just vibe and recharge, yknow? i think my natural state of mind is more calm and neutral rather than excitement.

 

[Aslan]

Positive emotion is much easier than negative emotion for me. I like expressing positive emotion wherever I have the opportunity to. I really do like smiling, laughing, expressing excitement and sharing appreciation with the people around me. If it makes someone's day a little brighter then that's even better. I like finding the positives in life wherever I can and will try to put myself in a good mood where possible.

Negative emotion on the other hand, I have a lot of trouble with. Not with experiencing it but opening up about it. I seperate how I present myself versus how I feel when it comes to negative emotion. I just tend to be more private about it and internalise and cope with those types of feelings alone. I do my best to keep it from not affecting how I interact with others but it can be clear if I'm hiding negative emotion as I get told I go quiet when I'm not in a good mood. But honestly, I do hope I learn to open up more. Talking about negative emotions is healthy and hopefully I can put what I think into practice sometime. I'm not much of a crier and I have rarely ever cried in front of other people, only if I'm extremely upset or stressed. I don't express negative emotions towards others where I can. Yes I can get annoyed, upset or angry at other people but it's rare and even rarer that I would say something about it. There are a lot of times where I think I should have called someone out and just didn't because I find it hard to openly express that I'm upset or angry by something they've done.

Overall I think I'm much more of an open book online than in-person but that being said it's also much easier to conceal feelings online when you have time to think of what to say and how you come off.