Crying is an emotional reaction that’s completely unique to humans. Our capacity for complex thoughts and feelings means that we can cry whether we’re overwhelmed with any emotion—happiness, despair, or fear—but not everyone cries the same way or for the same reasons. Some people break into tears at the drop of a hat; others remain stony-faced even when confronted with great tragedy or pain. Understanding the impulse to cry isn’t always easy, but understanding the psychological and evolutionary reasons we do it is even more complicated.
blissfully divine Teardrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head: The Reasons We Cry
Sad or Hurt, Same Response
All tears are comprised mainly of water, oil, and mucous and are produced in the lachrymal glands near the eyes. Made of the same stuff, we actually have three different kinds of tears: basal, which protect and moisten our eyes; reflex, which flush irritants and foreign objects from our eyes; and emotional tears, which are produced in response to strong emotions or pain. The body automatically produces basal and reflex tears, but emotional tears are only ones produced by the process we think of as crying. Emotional tears have been shown to contain higher levels of certain hormones like prolactin, which is associated with breastfeeding and milk production, and manganese, which helps regulate our moods.
Emotion and pain are both processed in the limbic system, the area of the brain that also processes memories, our senses, and behavior. Humans can cry whether we’re in emotional pain or physical pain, and regardless of the stimulus, the tears are the same. Because of this lack of differentiation, some researchers believe that the body can’t really distinguish between emotional and physical pain at all. Even though the mind knows the difference between a broken heart and a stubbed toe, the body generates the same response to both.
Crying—The Body’s Pressure Valve
Although the mechanisms of crying are not yet fully understood, the presence of hormones seems to indicate that shedding emotional tears is a way for our bodies to restore equilibrium. When we experience any kind of heightened emotion—grief, jubilation, anger, or pain—hormones surge through our bodies. Once they’ve built up, the body needs a way to release them and crying may be one way it equalizes itself.
Confirming the conventional wisdom, a study at the University of Florida found that most test subjects reported that their mood improved after a bout of crying. Despite high levels of anxiety and increased heart rates in response to stress, many of the criers eventually report feeling calmer and more relaxed than the non-criers, and those that showed the most benefit were those who received some kind of social support while they were crying.
Some research shows that people who cry in response to stress, pain, or emotion are generally healthier than those who don’t. It’s widely known that keeping emotions pent up contributes to stress levels, which in turn can cause headaches, heart disease, depression, hair loss, and a host of other physical maladies. Crying in order to alleviate stress may be one of the body’s ways of protecting itself.
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