Music and emotions

Yes, I experience this quite often; and as you said, I can often be quite perplexed about whether the upwelling of emotion is happy or sad. It's nearly always with music that I know well, including theme tunes from favourite childhood TV shows and the like, and often doesn't really fit with the "emotional tone" or style of the music - like a kind of extreme nostalgia, but without any idea what I'm pining for.

It certainly seems to relate to alexithymia in some way for me; the terrible difficulty that I have with knowing exactly what emotion I'm feeling in general, and inability to express my emotions clearly to anyone. It's as if the emotion is sitting there inside me without me knowing it, and my brain isn't quite sure what to do with it until something from outside suddenly triggers it to burst out. I've often had the same thing happen with things in TV shows and  cartoons, even when the scene doesn't really seem all that emotional (I went through a period of chilling out after a stressful day at work by having a laugh at The Simpsons and suddenly finding myself a blubbering wreck, for example).

It also happens sometimes when I'm making music. I might not be aiming to express any particular idea or emotion, and I don't really play "songs" as such (I'm a bass player); but sometimes I'll realise that I'm crying without having any idea why or even how long I've been doing it for.

It certainly does happen more when my mood is low; though that is also something which often creeps up on me without my noticing it - so I do take these little emotional episodes as a sign that I need to ask myself whether I'm less content or more stressed than I realise; something which the last counsellor I saw encouraged me to do, though I can't honestly say that I reach much of a conclusion a lot of the time.

Hope your mood lifts soon - I'm certainly hoping Spring will perk me up a bit!

Yeap me too.... In fact the only time I cry is when I am experiencing a complete meltdown or I am driving and listening to music. I have had to pull over before now because I have so much water coming out of my eyes I can't see!

Like trogluddite I have difficulty identifying and expressing my emotions and I think they go in noticed until they become so big that they burst out of me. I think there is a connection. Something that music does to alter brain signals.... 

Wow yeah have felt like that. Always thought it was just me. Few times I nearly had to pull over. Never understood why. 

Wow yeah have felt like that. Always thought it was just me. Few times I nearly had to pull over. Never understood why.