In the short term, it can cause pesky problems such as irritability, anxiety, and poor sleep. But over time, repressing your tears can lead to cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension — or even cancer.
When you are on the verge of crying but try to hold back your tears, the sympathetic nervous system speeds up your heart rate and the contractions of your heart muscle.
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's best not to hold in emotions all the time, but sometimes it's important to hold back tears. If you need to control a cry, try to hold back your tears just until you're in a better place for them. This way you won't suppress your emotions altogether.
The act of crying is not cathartic.
Dr Vanman says if you do cry alone, telling someone later that you cried can be the act of signalling our need to someone. "We're letting other people know how stressed we are," he says.
In other words, the context in which a child is left to 'cry it out' may alter attachment outcomes significantly. Following on from this point, Bilgin and Wolke (2020a) conclude that leaving infants to 'cry it out' has no harmful impact 'while a parent is present… and they monitor the infant's crying' (p. 1192).
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.
That's completely fine, so long as you're not bottling your emotions up. That being said, if your inability to cry worries you or you're struggling to connect with your feelings, it's important that you take time to explore this. Because it might be a sign that there's something else going on under the surface.
A 2021 study conducted in Italy during the first wave of lockdowns showed that when we regulate or ignore our emotions, we can experience short-term mental and physical reactions as well. “Suppressing your emotions, whether it's anger, sadness, grief or frustration, can lead to physical stress on your body.
Suppressed emotions stay in the body. The effects of suppressed emotions include anxiety, depression, and other stress-related illnesses. Such suppression can lead to alcohol and substance abuse.
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.
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.
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'.
“Feelings are like ocean waves,” says psychologist Alyson Stone, “they rise, crest and recede, all day long.” We can all relate. But according to brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, these waves last just 90 seconds. After that, we're simply re-stimulating our internal circuitry.
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.
Recognizing emotional repression in your feelings
regularly feel numb or blank. feel nervous, low, or stressed a lot of the time, even if you aren't sure why. have a tendency to forget things. experience unease or discomfort when other people tell you about their feelings.
Your brain signals your adrenal glands to release stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. These chemicals boost your heart rate and blood pressure, so if you hold them in while trying not to cry, it can translate into chest tightness and heavy breathing.
Lean on your support system: Sometimes, you might not be crying because you keep all of your emotions bottled up and do not share them with your support system. Confiding in loved ones about your emotional struggles may allow you to feel less alone and better able to share your emotions and tears.
Just because you rarely, or never, cry doesn't automatically mean that you are repressing your emotions in an unhealthy way. It could just mean that you haven't had anything happen to you that causes you to feel sad.
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.
Crying apparently burns as much as laughing does, at about a rate of 1.3 calories a minute.
“There is no evidence that crying actually increases eyelash growth.” While it may appear that way when you're spilling tears, it's just a temporary effect. “Crying does not make the eyelashes grow but the eyelashes may appear darker or straighter as tears lubricate the lashes,” Garshick says.
A baby "should simply be allowed to 'cry it out'. This often requires an hour, and in extreme cases, two or three hours. A second struggle will seldom last more than 10 or 15 minutes and a third will rarely be necessary."