Reasons Why Crying is good?

Crying is the response of humans to different emotions. Whether you are happy or sad, your eyes will produce tears. These tears can be of joy or sorrow; even cutting onions can lead to tears. Although crying has always seemed like a sign of weakness or vulnerability, the mindset has changed a lot. It was a lot worse when men cry. Crying men were considered weak or juvenile, but the past decades have shown us that crying is the only thing that makes someone human.

Why do we cry?

As discussed earlier, not all tears are produced because a person is sad. There are many different types of tears:

Basal Tears – these tears are the most common and are produced constantly to provide the eyes with a moist atmosphere and do not let them dry, which can be painful. These tears are rich in protein and also provide an antibacterial environment. They also have a lubricating and nourishing effect on the cornea.
Reflex Tears – these are the tears you shed when there is an onion or irritant nearby. These tears are produced so you can flush the irritants out of the eye. These tears result from your eyes being exposed to an external stimulus such as irritants or internal stimulus such as stress.
Emotional Tears – these are the tears the human shed when they are highly emotional. They can either be very happy or sad, and their eyes will start tear production.

How Crying Works?

Crying always needs a stimulus, whether irritants or stress. Crying is a procedure in which the lacrimal glands in the eye produce tears. Production of tears can be with or without the irritation of the ocular system. Scientists have also found a connection between the lacrimal glands and the brain. It is also seen that the tears produced during emotional reasons have a different composition than other types.

Composition of Tears

The main components of tears are water and salt because everyone has tasted their tears once in life. The following are the basic components that makeup teardrop:

Water
Electrolytes (responsible for the salty taste)
Proteins (only have one-tenth of blood plasma)
Lipids
Mucins

Mucins are responsible for the binding of tears to the surface of the eye. Without this layer, dry areas might appear in the eye that will lead to many diseases. Water is responsible for keeping the nutrients on the surface of the eye. Water is necessary to keep the epithelium of the eye healthy. Lipids are important to stop the excessive evaporation of the tears from the surface of the eye. Excessive evaporation will lead to dry-eye syndrome. Proteins, specifically, lysozymes are important as they keep viruses and bacteria at bay.

Many types of research done on crying make it sound like that crying is a good thing. This might be true due to several reasons.

Advantages of Crying

These are the advantages of having a good crying session once a month:

Stress Relieve

It is a good stress reliever. Many will claim this effect to be true. It has a soothing effect on many people. It is a tested fact that when someone is under stress, their immediate response is to cry their heart out. This will ensure that they have purged their emotions. A study done in 2014 claimed that a crying session has a direct soothing effect on people that are stressed for a long time.

Pain relive

Tears are also found to relieve or alleviate pain to some degree. When you stub your pinky toe on a table, your eyes will automatically fill with tears that are your body’s automatic response in reaction to pain. When the magnitude of pain is at a larger scale, the body will release oxytocin and endorphins that help lessen the pain to a degree, according to research done in 2014.

Mood Enhancers

Tears are also mood boosters. As discussed that while crying, the human body releases endorphins and oxytocin. These two hormones are also good mood stabilizers. Aftergood crying fest, a person will also feel a good mood after pouring their heart out.

Cry for Help

Your tears also convey your message when your words fail you. Crying for help is a common phrase used by therapists and psychiatrists. It is not just a phrase but a reality. People often do not know how to express their emotions through words and let their tears do the talking. A study also showed that this claim is true. Among the participants of the study, people who cried easily were more stressed than the other people.

Show Support

We show our support to others by crying. Whenever a person close to us leaves us or dies, people around us share our grief and sorrow in different ways. Some of them will cry with us in our sadness. A tear of joy is also an emotion that is shared by others. By shedding tears in someone else’s grief and happiness, humans show support by shedding tears.

Sleep Aid

When we cry, we are riding our bodies of toxins and stress. This will also help you sleep because your body is more relaxed when the stress is released and goes into slumber. The calming effect of crying will help a person fall asleep easily and immediately.

Crying Strengthen Relationship

When you cry in front of someone, you are showing them your vulnerabilities and insecurities. This will help in strengthening our relationship with that person. It is also important to note that if a person who guards his emotions very well cries in front of you, they trust you.

Summary

Crying does not make you weak, whether you are a male or female. You can cry if you feel like it. Do not stop your emotions from pouring out. If the crying is in excess and hindering your daily tasks, it is best to see a therapist as you might be battling a mental illness.

7 Sep 2021