Traumatic emotional stressor can be enough to cause physical damage to the heart, a syndrome known variously as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, stress-induced cardiomyopathy, or “broken heart syndrome.”
Sadness may flood your body with hormones like cortisol. Excess stress hormones in the body can cause physical sensations in your heart and nervous system, like chest pain, itching, or a rapid heart rate.
Bad Effects of Crying on Health
It can lead to fits or can cause acute shortness of breath. For those with severe heart conditions, there can be a cardiac pain. Crying can take a toll on your body if you have certain medical conditions.
They cause your heart to beat more rapidly and your blood vessels to narrow to help push blood to the center of the body. The hormones also increase your blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
During a particularly stressful experience, the anterior cingulate cortex may respond by increasing the activity of the vagus nerve—the nerve that starts in the brain stem and connects to the neck, chest and abdomen. When the vagus nerve is overstimulated, it can cause pain and nausea.
When someone cries, their heart rate increases and their breathing slows down. The more vigorous the crying, the greater the hyperventilation, which reduces the amount of oxygen the brain receives — leading to an overall state of drowsiness.
Some people describe it as a dull ache, others as piercing, while still others experience it as a crushing sensation. The pain can last for a few seconds and then subside, or it can be chronic, hanging over your days and depleting you like just like the pain, say, of a back injury or a migraine.
An anxiety attack is the worst.
The lights seem too bright; your heart feels like it might explode out of your chest. Your body shakes. You may find yourself unable to breathe; your chest hurts. You have an intense desire to escape, scream or cry.
When a person cries, several muscles in their face tense up. They may also feel tension in their jaw, down their neck, and at the back of their head. If a person is crying over a prolonged period, the continuous contractions of these muscles may result in a tension headache.
How Much Crying Is Too Much? No guidelines exist that determine how much people should or should not cry. Studies indicate that women tend to shed more emotional tears than men. One study found that women cried an average of 5.3 times per month while men cried 1.4 times during the same period.
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.
Studies have found that crying can lower blood pressure and heart rate. This effect was seen on people who had gone through intense therapy sessions during which they they had cried a lot.
Pleurisy Symptoms
This kind of chest pain is usually linked to problems with lung membranes called the pleura. But the term can be used to describe any intense chest pain that happens while you breathe, cough, or laugh. Lots of things can cause it, including infections, blood clots, and heart problems.
If your heart aches, you feel sad or feel sympathy and sadness for the suffering of other people: His heart ached with pity for her. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.
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.
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.
Crying During Anxiety Attacks
Many people feel impending doom, as though they are about to die. They respond by crying because that's a natural response to a feeling of intense dread along with the physiological reaction that occurs during a panic episode.
They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, according to Mental-Health-Matters.
When your heart “breaks,” a part of your heart actually enlarges. While this temporary enlargement causes depressed heart-pumping function in that area, the rest of your heart functions normally. Arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats) or cardiogenic shock also may occur during broken heart syndrome.
Crying apparently burns as much as laughing does, at about a rate of 1.3 calories a minute.
As per scientists, it might be triggered due to stress and anxiety, caused due to intense emotions. The emotional-buildup causes the body to release hormones like cortisol, which stimulate neurotransmitters in the brain, causing physical reactions such as crying, headaches, and runny noses.
Fatigue, low energy, and having trouble getting through the day are common symptoms of emotional exhaustion. Individuals with this condition often report feeling physically and emotionally tired and experience a sense of dread or discomfort when thinking about upcoming obligations.