Many people associate crying with feeling sad and making them feel worse, but in reality, crying can help improve your mood - emotional tears release stress hormones. Your stress level lowers when you cry, which can help you sleep better and strengthen your immune system.
Chan, however, says that if you feel emotional and want to cry, it is best to let it all out rather than holding it back. “Crying can be helpful in some situations, but remember that it's only a means for you to express your feelings, be it anger, sadness, anxiety, frustration or grief,” he says.
Crying for long periods of time releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, otherwise known as endorphins. These feel-good chemicals can help ease both physical and emotional pain. Once the endorphins are released, your body may go into somewhat of a numb stage. Oxytocin can give you a sense of calm or well-being.
Crying has been scientifically proven to make you feel better. No, it doesn't solve your problem, change the situation, or bring people back into your life. But it does provide you with an emotional outlet that begins the healing process, relieves stress, makes you mentally stronger, and fosters community.
It won't rid you of PTSD and your fears, but let your tears flow and you'll maybe feel a little better afterwards. 'Crying for long periods of time releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, otherwise known as endorphins. These feel-good chemicals can help ease both physical and emotional pain.
Crying also soothes us by facilitating the release of oxytocin (also called the cuddle hormone). This induces a sense of calm and well-being, helping us sleep peacefully.
We are most likely to cry in response to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Crying is a social trigger for empathy – a communication system that signals to others 'I need your help and support'.
Crying Lowers Blood Pressure
Crying has been found to lower blood pressure and pulse rate immediately following therapy sessions during which patients cried and vented. High blood pressure can damage the heart and blood vessels and contribute to stroke, heart failure and even dementia.
Crying Helps Improve Your Mood
Many people associate crying with feeling sad and making them feel worse, but in reality, crying can help improve your mood - emotional tears release stress hormones. Your stress level lowers when you cry, which can help you sleep better and strengthen your immune system.
There are no guidelines for how much crying is too much. A study in the 1980s found that women cry an average of 5.3 times per month and men cry an average of 1.3 times per month.
One of the best ways to release anxiety, frustration, or stress is to cry. Everyone needs to let it out once in a while, and there is definitely nothing wrong with that. In fact, it can actually be good for you.
The downsides of crying
The physical downsides of crying are pretty straightforward: puffy eyes, splotchy skin and a headachy feeling that can be chalked up to the strong contractions of your facial muscles while you weep and pressure in your sinuses from the runny nose that accompanies a tear-fest.
If a person is crying over a prolonged period, the continuous contractions of these muscles may result in a tension headache. Tension headaches are the most common primary headache, a headache that is not the result of another condition.
Definitions of crybaby. a person given to excessive complaints and crying and whining. synonyms: bellyacher, complainer, grumbler, moaner, sniveller, squawker, whiner. types: kvetch. (Yiddish) a constant complainer.
Lots of people cry when they feel frustrated, angry, or embarrassed. When you get mad, your body produces a flood of hormones that stimulate strong reactions in your body — everything from a racing heart to sweaty palms to short-term memory loss. In response to the elevated stress level, you may cry.
Emotions and thoughts
Your heart rate increases, your breathing gets faster and blood is pumped round your body quicker. A side effect of this is that you may feel sick or dizzy as breathing too fast causes you to take in too much oxygen.
Crying causes a release of endorphins or feel-good hormones and a reduction in stress hormones like cortisol, which have been linked to breakouts and other skin conditions. Though this may require more research, indications are that occasional bouts of crying can be good for the skin in the long run.
Prolonged crying that persists without reason is not normal and may indicate a serious condition requiring treatment. Dr. Kirtly Parker Jones talks about tears, crying, and emotions that are uniquely human.
"Crying activates the body in a healthy way," says Stephen Sideroff, Ph. D., a clinical psychologist at UCLA and director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics. "Letting down one's guard and one's defenses and [crying] is a very positive, healthy thing.
There are a lot of reasons, besides having an immediate emotional response, why you may cry more than normal. Tearfulness is frequently associated with depression and anxiety. People often experience the two conditions at the same time. Certain neurological conditions can also make you cry or laugh uncontrollably.
When a person cries with emotion, they can produce more tears than the lacrimal drainage system can cope with. This causes the tears to run out of the eyes and sometimes the nose. Tissue around the eyes can then reabsorb the tears, making the area appear puffy.