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 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.
After practicing TRE® people often use the words 'grounded', 'relaxed' and 'calmer' to describe their feelings. After a period of several months people have reported relief from illnesses such as Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Eczema and IBS.
Crying is our body's way of getting rid of toxins and our tears act as a release valve for stress, tension, depression and grief.
You'll feel better afterwards
When you cry for emotional reasons, those tears contain stress hormones that help relieve the body of stress-induced chemicals. You're quite literally shedding stress.
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.
According to the work of Dr. Judith Herman, trauma recovery is thought to occur in three main stages: safety and stabilization, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection and integration. In addition to these stages, it is also possible to grow from tragedies in our lives and from losses we experience.
"In a fight or flight situation, your muscles respond by tensing up. If you think of your pelvis as the center point for your body to work off of when trying to get away from trauma, and your body's response to trauma includes making your muscles tense, it makes sense that your hips tend to store a lot of tension."
Take time to slow down and be alone, get out into nature, make art, listen to music while you cook your favorite dinner, meditate to cleanse your mind and relax your body, take a bubble bath or a nap to restore.
Symptoms of Unresolved Trauma
Lack of trust and difficulty opening up to other people6. Dissociation and a persistent feeling of numbness7. Control issues, to overcompensate for feeling helpless during the traumatic incident8. Low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness9.
As we've shown here, the answer is yes. So if you are wanting to know how to calm down when stressed, crying can not only improve your mood, but it can also help get rid of stress, process grief, ease pain, restore emotional balance, and even detoxify the body.
Crying is an important coping mechanism, psychologists say. It allows us to express difficult emotions. It may help reduce stress by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the body's ability to relax. And, perhaps most important, it allows us to solicit emotional support and bond.
So, having a good cry from time to time can reduce stress and be good for you in many ways. And that stress reduction can help reduce anxiety disorder symptoms and anxiety disorder recovery. However, crying too much can be unhealthy for you and interfere with anxiety disorder recovery.
Cognitive Signs of Unhealed Trauma
You may experience nightmares or flashbacks that take you back to the traumatic event. Furthermore, you may struggle with mood swings, as well as disorientation and confusion, which can make it challenging to perform daily tasks.
Some people's efforts to block residual feelings of trauma may look like adapting avoidance behavior to avoid feelings of pain, also called trauma blocking. What is Trauma blocking? Trauma blocking is an effort to block out and overwhelm residual painful feelings due to trauma.
Neglected past trauma can have a large effect on your future health. The psychological and physical responses it triggers can make you susceptible to severe health conditions including stroke, heart attack, weight problems, diabetes, and cancer, according to a Harvard Medical School research study.
Releasing physical and emotional tension
Stretching the hip muscles causes a release; pent-up emotions may resurface, suppressed memories may arise, unconscious tension still held onto from a traumatic event may bubble up. All of which may unleash a seemingly inexplicable barrage of tears.
During the purification process, you'll face and address uncomfortable feelings you've stuffed away to avoid dealing with them. An emotional detox pulls up all the repressed feelings of fear, anger, hurt, sadness, and frustration to clear them away, effectively hitting the reset switch on your emotions.
Practice the three C's
As you build a plan, consider the “three Cs”: choose, connect, communicate. Choose: Choose what's best for you. Even during dark bouts of grief, you still possess the dignity of choice. “Grief often brings the sense of loss of control,” said Julie.
What is the hardest stage of grief? Depression is usually the longest and most difficult stage of grief. Depression can be a long and difficult stage in the grieving process, but it's also when people feel their deepest sadness.
Often the second year is the hardest as that's when the real grief work might begin. This is the time when you may be ready to face your grief head on and deal with any issues that are holding you back. If you're not ready yet though, don't feel guilty. There is no deadline and everyone grieves in their own time.