I cry at movies, when they light the Rockefeller Christmas Tree, and begin the Macy's Parade... I very, very rarely cry at real things. I cried at my Dad's funeral. I only cry at the most traumatic things - other than the movies/etc...

I thought about this quite a bit. The theory I came up with is that the real stuff is just too overwhelming - whereas the lighting of the tree or whatever just touches itty bitty little pieces of things that I can have feelings about without falling apart in a bigger way. Does that make any sense?

I grew up with that thing that men aren't supposed to cry - and that strong/accomplished/successful people don't cry. I guess I realized that was pretty much false, but I still felt embarrassed. Not so much vulnerable as embarrassed. The last time I cried in front of anyone was that doctor in that nasty place back in May.


Maybe being hypomanic you give yourself the ok to express those things. Or maybe being hypomanic they just have a little more power and presence.

Sometimes I wish I could just have a good cry about things. I find it hard. On the other hand, playing music or working on some creative/fun project can sometimes be as cathartic.

I of course don't know anything about the woman in your group. I know that some of us have issues where we crave attention from other people and I read into this that perhaps your leader was saying not to comfort her because you were feeding that habit or something... Regardless of whether she was sincere or not sincere I still think that you should be allowed to act on your feelings to reach out... If she were truly not sincere, then it would be the therapist's job to gently place focus on her, why she was crying, how other people reacted, etc... Of course I don't know any of this for sure, that was just the picture I formed.

What really bothered me is that you felt bad about reaching out. That's just wrong.

PS - when I say "some of us crave attention" I mean I sometimes do. I wasn't meaning this in reference to anyone in particular.