Why does this happen

[Mickyboy]

Just watching west side story the song a place for us brought me to tears

[John_Jeff_Maynard]

Mickeyboy, many get very emotional after stroke. I think it’s because we find everything in life more precious than ever. It’s good to cry.

[axnr911]

Hi Mickyboy–When I was in the hospital with my stroke, they told us that one of the effects we would notice after a stroke it very intense emotions. The brain’s emotion center gets affected with many if not most strokes. They said to expect to feel emotions more strongly and to feel them over things that didn’t used to affect us. This is a symptom that usually gradually lessens over time as the brain heals. I experienced this as well. I’d cry for no reason at all. One funny thing is that I laughed more easily too. I’d get to laughing over a joke and couldn’t stop laughing. Whatever emotion is involved in humor, I felt it very strongly. I’d almost laugh 'til I cried. It was a little embarrassing. I’m 3 1/2 years out from my stroke, so this has pretty much gone away. I sort of miss the laughing, though. Jeanne

[Rups]

Apparently, it’s how the cerebellum modulates emotions received from damaged parts of the brain, they call it “emotional incontinence”, as my cerebellum was directly damaged, I have a blunted emotional response, so the rest of my brain is expressing emotions “normally” but the cerebellum can’t translate that into something expressed. The reverse is the cerebellum unable to control the degree of emotion expressed by the other parts of the brain, thus a flood of tears or a prolonged guffaw.

[axnr911]

Thanks, Rups, for the info. Does that mean that you don’t “feel” sad about sad things, or you just can’t physically “cry” about it? Just curious, if you want to share. Also, how long since your stroke? Jeanne

[Rups]

Shwmae @axnr911 Jeanne, I can feel the emotion but can’t seem to voice it. I had a stroke September 2020, so am just over a year into recovery. Sometimes, I’ve had people say that they are annoyed that I’m not getting as worked up about something as they are but I can’t help it. I have to tell them that I agree with them but just can’t react in the same way.

[axnr911]

That must be a very strange experience. Thanks for explaining it to me. I hadn’t heard of this before you mentioned it. All I can say is, if your situation is the opposite of what I experienced, then it may be that over time your motional reactions will change, as did mine. I’m not “over done” now, but it’s been 3 1/2 years. So, you may find as time goes by you begin to express emotions more. In Stroke World it seems that anything can happen. Jeanne

[Mickyboy]

Thanks for all your support don’t think I’ll venture out this week but have dental appointments Thursday panicking about getting taxis to take me but Napoli to get home