Are you having hot flashes? If so, I can guess.

I'm "the tough one" too. I didn't shed a tear at either of my parents' funerals. I was busy making sure that everyone else was ok, and being the strong shoulder for them. I'm a man and I was raised to be strong and never to show weakness, especially in public.

About a month ago, there was an item on the news that totally did me in. It was some little American boy about ten years old, who was being so severely bullied by the other kids because of his appearance, that he broke down and bawled in the car when his mother picked him up from school. (She was recording it.) There was so much raw pain in his voice that I couldn't control myself, and I just lost it. It knocked the lid right off my jar, and I haven't been able to get it back on ever since. (I'm crying again, right now, just recounting it to you! Feel like I'm going nuts sometimes.)

I know that this is what happens when I repress my feelings for so long. I know this release is a necessary thing. Still, I'm presently afraid to even go to a movie with anyone now, in case I break down in the theatre and publicly humiliate myself.

At the thought of rough sex in Hell...er...wait a minute...I've been reading GS all night (last year's mostly) and I'm afraid they're overlapping. Sorry nevermind

I had a very similar break down after trying to suppress everything my whole life. Still coming through with help.

I was like this while pregnant and for the first 2 years after giving birth. Thank god it's faded and I'm normal again.

I didn't have a baby--I haven't had any children--but this just might be the grandmaster of all midlife crises. I spent the last five years in a dysfunctional, abusive relationship and only managed to get out of it three months ago. I now find myself alone, and all of my friends have moved on and built families, etc, and I'm 42 and have nothing to show for five wasted years. Not even a good, stable career; my life was in upheaval as I had to deal with a pathological liar / fantasist / unstable, violent manipulator.

This could be what a couple of people have mentioned above, which is suppressed emotions raging to the surface, but I'm scared at how much I'm crying, and at how fearful I now feel of everything. I used to be so strong and I now feel like I have been flayed.

It's like a dam burst.

If it keeps bursting for months I'd be worried but you have just had some big changes, big catharsis.

For me it was having kids. I was always a very black humor type of guy, very little filter, enjoyed being callus. Then I suddenly connected to the human race after sneering at it, and BOOM EMOTIONS COMPASSION CONCERN

The loss of the relationship. The years you lost. The hopes you gave up. Crying is natural. When you have worked through the grief it will pass but if you were the stoic type you may have a mountain of pent-up grief inside many years old, waiting to be worked through. Deep breathing exercises helped me.