I guess some people are built to feel things more poignantly – the knife of heartache cuts deeper, the rushing streams of passion run stronger. The highs and lows of life are adorned with vivid sensory accompaniment. Truth be told, I’ve always been an emotional person and never held back tears. Yet it seems like this year my eyes have wept oceans of salty sadness – sometimes for a reason, just as often for none that I can discern.
For the first time in my life I have cried so furiously that I could not breathe. I remember each texture as I lay curled on my bed hyperventilating from overwhelming sadness. I remember the wash of no-longer-warm water cooling against my skin in the bath, as I wailed with hopeless anguish contemplating a bitter future.
Again, and again, and again the tears have come. Bidden and unbidden. I feel my mind trapped in a cage of emotions. Even as I see myself hurtling towards an irrational action, there is nothing I can do to stop it – the emotions inside of me must be heard, they must play out. So I say things out of hurt, or anger, or grief. I try to rein in myself and act with thoughtful aplomb. When I am centered, and strong this works. But more often it fails to break through, live a wave desperately crashing against the cliff side only to be repelled by an immovable force.
Am I more emotional after transition?
This is a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now. My past fades into dim memory, but I feel almost certain that I held the reigns of my actions more tightly in the before. Is it the hormones? I remember being joyful earlier in my transition, but perhaps my joy held an equal sway over me. So it is merely the ebb and flow of my inner tides, and not a more emotional self coming through.
Perhaps it is the trauma of my many surgeries that have put me more in touch with the world. They gave me an empathy for those experiencing pain, and a keener ear to hear the drumbeat of my own. I’ll be the first to admit that I still feel the aftershock of the surgeries.
It is late tonight, and I feel drained, but I am eager to hear your perspective. How did your emotional state change after you transitioned?
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Not sure how long after your rs you are,but there is a thing called surgical depressive effect you have to deal with,it can catch you off guard in the days and months after surgery,something akin to post partum in genetic women
That for me almost did me in,as my friends left and a lover abandoned me as well. The emotional roller coaster I remember well.
But be strong,it does get better,I know that for sure.
My mother used to say she wore her feeling on her shirtsleeves. I am emotional like her. Always have been. But it is the way I show them that has changed on hormones and as I get in touch with the woman inside. I used to show anger and bouts of temper. Emotions would be hidden, but building, leading to a big blowup. But now I have learned to express those emotions more quickly, in productive ways. I am no longer a time bomb, ready to blow at any moment. I do cry at the drop of a hat and… Read more »
Over that last four years, thought they have been hard ones and not due to my transition either, I have found that watching, reading or hearing something can stir up an emotional response in me far more quickly than it ever did before. And it doesn't have to be something sad, it could be something happy or romantic, or it could be just the way it hits me.
Transition is such an emotional place, in itself, that it's been hard to say. The highs have been high and the lows (recovery from surgery for me) have been low. Things are settling down, and I feel rather more centered now; and more centered in my heart, specifically. Is that more emotional? Maybe; I suspect I cry and stop crying more swiftly than I did before. I don't get as carried away by self destructive fantasies when things are hard. There's also, for sure, a calmness in the heart, as well. I connect more quickly and deeply with people, with… Read more »