Research has found that in addition to being self-soothing, shedding emotional tears releases oxytocin and endorphins. These chemicals make people feel good and may also ease both physical and emotional pain. In this way, crying can help reduce pain and promote a sense of well-being.
Hippocrates thought that crying was the body's way to safely release “excess humors” from the brain. Aristotle suggested that tears cleanse the mind of suppressed emotions. The poet, Ovid, agreed with Aristotle, saying that, “It is some relief to weep; grief is satisfied and carried off by tears.”
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.
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.
Treatment for trauma
By concentrating on what's happening in your body, you can release pent-up trauma-related energy through shaking, crying, and other forms of physical release.
"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.
Crying is a sign of strength because it is a demonstration of a completely comfortable relationship with the self. Choosing to cry and feel is a choice in the interest of one's emotional health. Choosing to cry is also choosing not to care about the opinions of others.
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.
The most recent research also indicates that crying helps to promote the release of so-called “feel good” hormones called endorphins. These hormones reduce pain and boost pleasure, increasing feelings of well-being.
Crying can cause your body to produce hormones that make you feel better. You release oxytocin and endorphins after you cry, which can help lift your mood. If you feel emotional comfort when you cry, your mood can improve afterward.
Crying can lower both your blood pressure and heart rate, studies have found. It does this by activating your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which helps you relax.
For emotional tears to kick in, your limbic system — the part of your brain that regulates emotions — sends a signal to your brain's message system to activate your lacrimal glands to produce tears. The result? A full-on cry-fest. When you make a lot of them, they overwhelm your tear ducts.
“Crying releases a ton of hormones, including chemical endorphins (painkillers) and oxytocin, also known as the 'love hormone'. These induce a sense of calm and promote sleepiness,” explains Rhodes.
Crying easily can be a symptom of depression, anxiety, or a lot of stress in your life. Since HSPs feel so deeply and can experience sensory overload, we're more susceptible to strong feelings of depression or anxiety. We might feel alone in our sensitivity or isolate ourselves to reduce excess stimuli.
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.
Trauma is not physically held in the muscles or bones — instead, the need to protect oneself from perceived threats is stored in the memory and emotional centers of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala.
Exercise helps your body burn off adrenaline, release endorphins, calm your nervous system, and relieve stress. While any physical movement can help get your energy moving, some forms of exercise are especially helpful for trauma.
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.
Background. Triple A syndrome (or Allgrove syndrome) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by alacrima, achalasia, adrenal insufficiency and autonomic/neurological abnormalities. The majority of cases are caused by mutations in the AAAS gene located on chromosome 12q13.
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.