I can't cry. Does anyone else here have trouble with this?

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I used to be very feeble and cry over many things growing up. I was extremely emotionally sensitive and seemingly pointless things would set me off.

Lately, though -- over the past year or two -- I have found it nearly impossible to cry. I don't know if this has to do with my ASD, my depression or (somehow) my social anxiety.

But the fact remains that even when I feel like I'm on the verge of tears, like I could cry my heart out for hours alone in my room, my body just won't grant me that catharsis. It is extremely frustrating; it's like there is an enormous physical lump in my chest that I can't get over no matter how hard I try. I know I would feel so much better if I could just sob for even just a few minutes, but I can't. And it's killing me.

At other times -- and this is very rare -- I'll start bursting out crying without even expecting it. It comes from seemingly nowhere and completely takes me over.

Could it be that there is some kind of disconnect between my emotions and my physiology? Is this what alexithymia is? I've tried reading about it, but everything I've read sounds so confusing. Is it something you're born with, or can it be developed? I'm hoping that someone here can relate or give me some insight. Thank you in advance.

I don't know what that is actually, but some say it could be from depression. Depression is a complicated thing, some people can get so affected by depression that they just can't cry. Do you get significantly anxious and/or depressed a lot of the time?
My mum is a perfect example. She's always had depression (probably me being born as someone with Asperger's never helped), and lots of things have gone wrong in her life, and she is also a born worrier, and now she has got to a point where she can't cry at all. She always used to cry quite a lot, but I haven't heard her cry for a few years now, and she said herself that she just can't cry any more (unless something really devastating happened, like the loss of a relative or something, God Forbid).

I do cry a lot. I get tearful over the slightest thing. Even if somebody at work is telling me off in the nicest possible way, I feel I am fighting back tears as if to say ''why can't you just leave me alone, I'm just here to do my work!'', even though they're not exactly telling me off as such. I sometimes wish I could become someone that can't cry so easily.

That's the only answer I can think of, it's probably not very accurate but it's the best I can come up with. Stay tuned for better answers others may give you here.

I experience the opposite. I cry easily so I keep myself out of stressful situations.

My gf never cries like the OP mentions.
However she does have dreams in which she can cry in the dreams.
We don't know what to make of it either aside from maybe depression as was mentioned...

Same boat as you OP, I can't think of a time in my life when I've cried because of pain. For emotional issues I used to cry but after about 12/13 it just doesn't happen. Not even death of a close family member could get me to shed a tear. That doesn't mean there haven't been times I want to cry though, through emotional pain or even just lonlieness I can't.

I've been diagnosed ASD, but not depression. I do have bad anxiety though so it could be that.

I don't cry as often as other people nor for the same reasons. I cried more over breaking my favorite headphones than I ever have over a relative's death (I never cry because someone has died), and I cried over a pet's death far more than I ever did over anything else.

This used to bother me but now I know it's how I am, and I am okay with it.

I don't cry either. There have been times when I know I should be crying and my stomach will be all knotted up, but there are just no tears.
Of course there are other times when I'm not even upset and everyone else around me is.
My wife likes to remind me of the Seinfeld episode where the gang is at the diner eating and a friend comes in telling them some sort of bad news. The gang starts getting upset and one of them starts passing out napkins so they can wipe their eyes. Jerry takes a napkin and wipes his mouth.

That's me.

I usually cry waaaay to easily, any emotion, it doesn't even have to be strong, can set me off, but I don't think of that as "real" crying.

I also try to keep it in as much as possible, since I mostly get like this in more or less public settings (just experiencing emotions with other people around can make me cry in and of itself), so I try to "save it" for when I'm alone and has the opportunity to cry properly, simply because I think it's healthy. It's certainly not healthy to always keep it in. It makes me super prone to both general anxiety and anxiety attacks.

Now, when I finally have the time to cry I don't always feel like crying then and there, but I know I need to, simply because it "sticks" in my body otherwise.

My way of dealing with this is certainly NOT healthy, but what helps me is to get absolutely s**t faced drunk. This enables me to cry properly and release the tension in my body

Testosterone

I'm backwards with my crying too. I cry at movies instead of when someone I know dies. When someone dies, I feel more anger/frustration.

I really have trouble crying. I'm more emotional and sensitive than other males my age, but I still cry rarely. In fact, today I severely injured my leg, I never felt that much pain in my life, and not one tear.

I've never cried much in all my life. Even as a child, I cried very few times, and my mother wondered why, for example, other children cried during their first day at kindergarten, and I was the only one who didn't.
I only cried during my childhood when my parakeet died and my dog was missing, and I couldn't find him. When I was about 11-12 I cried only three or four times during sad movies, but every time I started crying I ended up laughing and laughing after a few seconds without a reason. Even when I got hurt, I often laughed instead of crying, and if I cried, it didn't last much, just a minute or two.

I don't cry very often nowadays.