Hey, I'm not sure if this has been posted before, sorry if it has, I just couldn't find it..

Recently, I've noticed that I've been crying more often, before my accident, I never cried and people often referred to me as the 'ice queen'! But now, I feel like I want to cry all the time, nothing has happened to me other than me injury, nearly 6 months ago...
I'm not sure why this is happening! I feel like I'm starting to lose who I am... who I was.. I'm not sure what to do any more. I don't want to go to the doctors because I am scared that they'll tell me something like I have depression and would want me to take a cocktail of drugs...

Is this normal? Or.. do I have a problem? Thanks..

Yes, this is a common symptom of PCS. It is called emotional lability.

Count your blessings. You could be dealing with the opposite and get raging mad at the slightest trigger.

Don't worry Charlie - I was crying a lot more and had a lot of varying emotions for a long time after the accident I was in and it's just recently been getting better. And I used to have a LOT of emotional control. I still don't have the emotional control I did before the accident I was in, but I expect to someday. Just yesterday I got so frustrated at work that I sent my boss an email begging her to make a formal complaint about the printer cartridges we are provided with. Printer cartridges! Lucky for me, everyone is super patient with me as I heal. I wish I could be as patient with myself and them.

You'll most likely get better in time. I'm not going to tell you to be patient because I hate it when people tell me that.

Maybe you are depressed - but I think crying a lot doesn't make a person depressed and I'll bet your Dr.'s know that too. I would cry just watching a "sad" story on a commercial! But I'm not doing that now. Thank God! I felt so silly doing that!

But you do NOT have to take any drugs if you don't want to - even if your Dr.'s recommend them. You have every right to refuse to take any drugs that you feel uncomfortable taking. That's something I forgot when I was doing really poorly cognitively and it would scare me a lot - but my family would always reassure me that I didn't have to take anything I didn't want to. I eventually became so desperate that I ended up taking a LOT of different drugs and experienced a LOT of awful side effects until my neuro realized I had a rare complication of the concussion - but that's a whole 'nother story.

Just ride the waves as best you can. You'll end up on dry land someday.

I have both (I don't break into tears, but I do feel like dying. Every day). I don't know which is worse. As Mark says, count your blessings, although I know you probably didn't want to hear that (who does?).

I have the rage part...my trigger is always set to go off these days and I have to make an exceptional effort to control my anger now. It's hard to do, the slightest frustrations can boil over in a moment and I'm gritting my teeth and looking for something to smash. It's hard to deal with, and of course my neuro discounts it along with half of my symptoms.

Omg! I went through the same thing. I sustained a concussion 5 weeks ago in a rugby match. The first two weeks especially I was super emotional. I'm usually VERY in control, rational, cool as a cucumber type of personality.

After the concussion though I found I was super expressive of my emotions and felt very loving and compassionate all of the time--just way more than normal. I'd also just start to tear up or cry for no reason. It would feel like I'd get a sudden surge of emotion and just cry. I wasn't sobbing. I didn't feel depressed or sad. It was just a pool of heightened emotion.

I'm pretty sure it was all symptomatic of my brain just being impaired after sustaining the trauma/concussion--though it was a fascinating thing to experience. Now the hyper emotionalism is wearing off and I am just finding I am WAY more irritable.

I just look at all of this as symptoms of the concussion--just like the headaches, dizzyness and nausea. It will get better eventually. Don't worry!

Some people will continue to experience the emotional lability for a long time.

It sounds like LisaGH may be entering the irritable and prone to outburst phase of personality change common to PCS.

The personality changes can be permanent with some people. My personality changed after my concussion in 1965 and never returned to my previous personality. There is no explanation as to why this happens.

The first few weeks I was home from the hospital I would start crying for no real reason. If I felt lonely I would cry. If I felt grateful I would cry. If I felt happy I would cry. This would happen several times a day. A year later, interestingly I now have the opposite problem. I can get sad but seems like nothing can make me cry now. Sometimes I want to in order get emotional stuff out but I just can’t do it.

Prior to the accident, I too, was a very in-control, non-emotional person. Since the accident I cry frequently. It is another added frustration.

Sometimes i feel emotional numb. When something happens and i dont have very much emotion at all. It seems as some of my emotions have been desensitized. Also noticed i dont have much to say when talking to people on the phone or in person. I used to almost always have something to say.