Do Big Sober Boys and Sober Girls Cry?

[Frananne]

Dear Keith,
Thank you for sharing. Recently someone said something in a meeting that resounded so hard on my strings I left the room to go cry in the back. I could tell it was going to be one of these loud heartbroken sobby things. Someone who was getting coffee asked after I quieted down if I was okay. I told him that sometimes you just need to cry. He agreed with me and that was that. I think if we do not sometimes let it out when sober we'll start to think it can only come out when we're drunk. Since we do not want to visit that stop anymore let the teats fall when they need to and my hope is you will always have someone there to ask if you're okay and just listen if you are not. Don't we go to the meetings to listen also?

Take good care of yourself.
Frananne

[Frananne]

I meant let the tears fall!

[Dallas]

Thanks for sharing folks. Yep. I cry. Of course -- I no longer claim to be one of the Big Boys.

For me, not crying -- had been a major part of my sophisticated denial system that I first developed as a child. "Deny the pain and the pain goes away. It might kill me, but it's better to be dead than to feel it." Unfortunately, it also robbed me of the feel-good moments when tears of gratitude would have been appropriate.

The first problem I had to solve when denying the pain was: How do I do this? Yep. I can so a lot with just my mind, but as overly sensitive as I was -- I needed a Higher Power to get the job done. That was when alcohol and drugs became my Higher Power, that could and would do for me -- what I could not do on my own -- if I just sought it and used it.

And, that turned me into a numb and drunk idiot. That, needed to find an even Higher Power of Freedom -- to free me from the Higher Power of my addictions.

[kcjax]

I get teary eyed listening to others peoples story..especially when it relates to my story or feelings. I remeber sitting in meeting when someone described something that seemd like thye were describing me. I could barely hold in the tears when the lady next to me asked me to go down the hall and open the door for air...lol
I'm army stoic..so crying usually is not something I do......but when it rains it pours....