Why do we cry? What makes our body want to shed tears in a bad situation?

Answer 1

Why Do We Cry?

No one is quite sure. Humans and animals produce two kinds of tears: Basal, or continuous, tears moisten the eye, and reflex tears spring into action when the eye is irritated by some foreign object. But it is the shedding of emotional tears, weeping, that seems to be uniquely human—and little understood.

Researcher William Frey suggests that emotional crying actually relieves the body of harmful and excess substances, much as do kidneys, colon, lungs, and pores. His book Crying—The Mystery of Tears describes his study that compared tears caused by an irritant (an onion) with tears caused by emotions (from watching sad movies). The emotional tears contained higher concentrations of protein—about 24 percent greater. The reason is not yet clear, but evidently the body produces a kind of tear in response to emotion that is different from the kind in response to irritation.

“I am weeping as a woman. My eye, my eye is running down with waters,” wrote the prophet Jeremiah. (Lamentations 1:16) Do women truly weep more than men? Statistically they do—about four times as often (5.3 times a month versus 1.4 for men). According to Frey, in infancy boys and girls cry about the same amount, though it may be days or weeks from birth before a baby will shed tears of emotion. In the teenage years, however, the difference begins to develop. This might be due to social influences. But the hormone prolactin (the milk-producing stimulant) is equally present in youngsters of both genders until the teen years. Somewhere between ages 13 and 16, the level rises in females.

Prolactin is found in tears. It also builds up in the body under stress. Hence, women would be subject to even greater levels of the hormone than men when stressed. Could this be why women cry more easily and frequently than men? Dr. Frey believes that emotional crying is the body’s effort to regain chemical balance. The hormones may actually stimulate crying, and he theorizes that this is why we often feel better after we cry.

Another study, by psychotherapist Margaret Crepeau, found a link between holding back crying and a “significantly higher rate of stress-related internal disorders like ulcers and colitis.” (Seventeen, May 1990) Other researchers found evidence to the contrary. Health magazine reports that Drs. Susan Labott and Randall Martin examined frequent criers and infrequent criers. Their findings showed that stress was not lessened by weeping and that more frequent criers “were more prone to anxiety and depression.” Their conclusion is that crying is not useful when it “merely distracts us from the problem.” However, weeping can be an important part of accepting a traumatic experience, for example, the death of a loved one.

Suffice it to say, the cause and purpose of emotional tears remains elusive.

Answer 2

There are a lot of self-help books that could help you. But there is another approach to this. Why do we cry? because we cannot control our emotions. Its like an elephant entering a small pool, the water spills out because the elephant is bigger than the pool can handle. So are we, our emotions are too big for us to handle. First you have to learn to not react to anything that someone says to you, or to things that happen to you. This is difficult in the beginning but everytime you react, you must remind yourself not to react the next time. This will get easier and easier with time and one day you will find yourself smiling when people are shouting at you. That's the day you have conquered your emotions. Remember, never get into an argument, dont shout or raise your voice. The best speech is silence. Meditation can help a lot, even 15 minutes of sitting in silence everyday can strengthen your mind and increase your emotional capacity a lot. Good luck.

Answer 3

The emotion causes the muscles in your face to tighten and squeeze the tear ducts which caused you to cry. It has nothing to do with God or anything like that. It's the same reason why when you laugh you cry or when you sneeze your eyes water.

Answer 4

It is a cleansing and a form of healing from troubled times. Similar to a pressure cooker in a way. Once you have a good cry, you feel releaved, and perhaps a little tired as well.

Answer 5

That my friend is a great question. Something I've never contemplated. I'll be looking at the responses for an intelligent answer.

Answer 6

If its a MOVIE, listen to the song they play? Hollywood had figured out that certain frequencies in Music cause the sinus cavity of cavitate. so tears start to swell

Answer 7

That's a great question; I wish you would post in the appropriate section so we could get some real answers.

Answer 8

Emotional relief from sadness, grief, humility, fright, happiness. As you can see there could be many reasons, but it's a GOD given way for the human body to react when needing "emotional relief"...thank the Lord......

Answer 9

Hi, tears are our self-defense, against going insane, was God smart or what.

Answer 10

emotions.