If crying becomes more frequent or uncontrollable and there is no apparent cause, consider consulting a medical professional. A mental health condition, hormonal imbalance, or neurological condition may be responsible. This article explores what can cause frequent and unexplained crying.
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. For most people crying does more good for their body than harm.
Crying is normal in healthy amounts—but what is a healthy amount? With no hard numbers as to how often we should cry, the American Psychological Association states that, on average, women cry emotional tears several times a month (30 to 64 times a year), while men may cry once every month or two (5 to 17 times a year).
According to the German Society of Ophthalmology, which has collated different scientific studies on crying, the average woman cries between 30 and 64 times a year, and the average man cries between 6 and 17 times a year. Men tend to cry for between two and four minutes, and women cry for about six minutes.
Severe grief or disruption can cause anyone to cry, and that's normal. Prolonged crying that persists without reason is not normal and may indicate a serious condition requiring treatment.
Crying is a normal behavior caused by a variety of reasons that include emotional, physical and chemical responses from your body. But it's possible you can cry too much or not cry enough. Either can cause damage to your eyes if left untreated.
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.
Anxiety that occurs in the higher degrees can cause even stronger emotional reactions. These strong emotional reactions can cause some people to cry. Moreover, some people cry even after an anxiety or panic attack has ended due to the after effects of experiencing such strong episodes of anxiety.
But over time, repressing your tears can lead to cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension — or even cancer. Yikes. So if you need to bawl and are able to take a minute, it's in your best interest to go ahead and cry before going back to your regularly scheduled programming, says Dr. Van Groningen.
Today's psychological thought largely concurs, emphasizing the role of crying as a mechanism that allows us to release stress and emotional pain. Crying is an important safety valve, largely because keeping difficult feelings inside — what psychologists call repressive coping — can be bad for our health.
Definitions of crybaby. a person given to excessive complaints and crying and whining. synonyms: bellyacher, complainer, grumbler, moaner, sniveller, squawker, whiner. types: kvetch.
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.
We also create a lot of mucous when we cry — snot, tears, and generally blubbering. All of this mucous could leave you feeling congested or having a headache. Plus, the muscle strain we exert when we cry can be enough to cause a tension headache.
Is it OK to let a baby cry? It all depends on your little one's age. Newborns and young babies less than 12 pounds aren't ready for sleep training and haven't yet learned to self-soothe. That's why letting a baby cry it out at 1 month doesn't work, whereas they might be ready by 3 months, or 12 weeks.
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.
You might be the type who doesn't remember the last time you cried, but your body is still producing 5 to 10 ounces of tears every day.
Taking a deep breath and focusing on breathing slowly and calmly can help regain control. Moving the eyes around and blinking back the tears can prevent them from spilling out. When a person cries their face tends to tense up. Focusing on the muscles in the face and relaxing them can help prevent crying.
You might cry when someone yells at you because you feel angry, fearful, stressed, or upset.
It might just mean that you process grief differently than others. And that's perfectly normal. There are many different ways to grieve, and not all of them involve crying. Just because you don't cry doesn't mean you're not grieving or that you don't care about the person who died.