GW, it could be that you cannot emote when you are expected to. When you watch a movie on your own, nobody has expectations of you - nobody expects you to cry and nobody expects you NOT to cry. But when family emergencies happen, you know that you are expected to emote but simply cannot produce that emotion "on demand". You can only emote when you do so on your own terms and in privacy. You probably need privacy and some degree of seclusion to really express feelings. You are probably highly sensitive, too.