Researchers have established that crying releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, also known as endorphins. These feel-good chemicals help ease both physical and emotional pain.
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.
Share on Pinterest Crying has a number of health benefits, but frequent crying may be a sign of depression. Crying in response to emotions such as sadness, joy, or frustration is normal and has a number of health benefits. However, sometimes frequent crying can be a sign of depression.
"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.
Tearing up can also signal your brain to release endorphins called leucine-enkephalins, which act like pain relievers to boost your mood. “So people start to feel a sense of relief,” says Dion Metzger, M.D., a psychiatrist based outside of Atlanta.
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.
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.
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.
When tears drain into the sinuses, they mix with mucus and can cause a runny nose. This buildup of mucus and tears can cause pressure in the sinuses, which may lead to a headache. A person experiencing a sinus headache may feel pain and pressure across their forehead, cheeks, or around their eyes.
Cry all you want — you won't run out of tears
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), you make 15 to 30 gallons of tears every year. Your tears are produced by lacrimal glands located above your eyes. Tears spread across the surface of the eye when you blink.
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.
Sometimes the emotions you feel when you cry can be so intense that they lead to physical symptoms, like a headache. How crying might cause headaches isn't clear, but intense emotions, like stress and anxiety, seem to trigger processes in the brain that pave the way for headache pain.
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 apparently burns as much as laughing does, at about a rate of 1.3 calories a minute.
Crying and tension headaches
According to Hafeez, tension headaches are the most common type of headache from crying. “When you cry, your whole body tenses up, especially your head and neck,” she says. “As such, the muscles will constrict after a while, causing the throbbing sensation in your head to begin.”
Emotional information is stored through “packages” in our organs, tissues, skin, and muscles. These “packages” allow the emotional information to stay in our body parts until we can “release” it. Negative emotions in particular have a long-lasting effect on the body.
Neck Tension = Fear and Repressed Self-Expression
Fear and anxiety are also frequently stored in this area, particularly as a physical response to danger (as the neck is a vulnerable area) or strange environments. Neck muscle tension is also related to trust issues.
Ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences have been systematically explored, researchers have noted that a trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response.
A newer study found that the average duration for a crying session was eight minutes. If you're concerned that you're crying too much, if you can't seem to stop crying, or have started crying more than usual, talk to your doctor. It may be a sign of depression or another mood disorder.
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'.
If you can't cry at all, you might have a hard time working through your own emotions, and you could also find it tough to connect with others. In the end, crying is normal, so don't worry about trying to hold those tears back — they're completely natural.
It Releases Feel-Good Chemicals. Endorphins are chemicals produced by your brain that improve your sense of well-being. Research has found that crying actually causes your brain to release endorphins, helping you feel better afterward.
“Since crying has been proven to reduce stress, crying may have a positive effect on a person's skin over time,” she explains. “Skin issues such as acne and breakouts can be caused by stress, and, therefore, crying can indirectly reduce acne breakouts by reducing the stress.”