What is the use of crying?

Question

As in, why do we cry? - because we are stressed or upset, but what good does it do? Why show it through the eyes and not somewhere else? Why do we produce more tears when we are upset? Does it help in anyway?

Answer 1

It seems that no one is answering your question properly! I don't think they get what you mean! You are asking about why we cry from an evolutionary point of view, like the reason that we jump when startled is to get our body ready for fight/flight! Well, I have absolutely no idea why we cry! Obviously we produce tears when we have something in our eyes to wash them out, but as to why we cry when we are sad or in pain, I have no clue! I even searched it on the net quite a bit and no one seemed to know! Sorry!

Answer 2

Its just the way are bodies react to things such as a death, marriage, birth, or getting hurt by someone......Besides protecting your eyes, the tear glands produce more fluid when your eyes are irritated. These extra tears are called reflex or irritant tears. And, when something makes you happy or sad, your tear glands will produce emotional tears. Used tears then drain down into two tiny openings on the brim of your upper and lower eyelids at the inner edge of your eyes, which lead to the nasolacrimal tear ducts next to the bridge of your nose......Crying is the translation of psychologically experienced distress into a physical form, which helps to reduce the feeling of distress. The physical process of translation shares similarities with laughter, involving muscular spasms, rapid intake of breath and tears reaching a crescendo and then gradually calming. During this process, bodily tension is racked up and then relaxed, giving a feeling of release and tears externalise and symbolise the psychological hurt in a physical form.
BUT A cry is not always "good" Sometimes crying brings no sense of release and the person does not feel better afterwards.

Answer 3

Do you not feel better -like a weight has been lifted - after you've cried even if the cause of the upset hasn't gone away? It helps relieve the stress and tension building up in your system which is a good thing for your body as 'overloads' can cause serious problems...physical pain or mental issues for example.

And it doesn't just show via your eyes...what about peoples faces going red, fists bunching, hunched over etc...body language changes completely to show the tension and pain the mind is feeling.

Whilst crying may not seem to be 'worthwhile', it is much better to release the emotion than to bottle it up.

Answer 4

Crying Well means to Cleanse, … to let go of or release feelings.

When a person is done crying well, they feel lighter, more at ease, and usually a little better about themselves, their world, and their prospects for having some control. Life hasn't necessarily gotten any better, but their perspective of life and themselves has. So they still may feed sad and hurt and down, but they are less likely to feel rotten and depressed.

When a person is finally done Crying Poorly, they will feel a little better briefly because of the catharsis, but mostly they'll just feel exhausted and relieved that it's over, and will still feel stuck, hopeless and helpless … all that crying would thus largely serve to underscore how lousy their life is, how weak they are, and how out of control they are. So that kind of crying is likely to get them deeper into depression, not out of it!

And all the time you were crying you'd have been telling yourself how miserable life is and how you can't stand it any more, and that would simply give you more to cry about. So, since that crying wouldn't be helpful to you and in fact would be harmful, it's clear that you wouldn't have cried well.

So once again we see that, although we often don't have much control over what happens to us or over other peoples' behavior, if we are attentive to how we talk to ourselves about the events and relationships in our life then we can have some control over our feelings and attitudes and how those events impact us.

Answer 5

Yes it really helps a lot to cry, it relieves your emotional stress and definitely gets you focused on the next move to make about what coursed the tears. Also i know that some people shade tears while laughing yes the do, tears really express your true filling about the situation at hand.

Answer 6

Good question but I'm not sure. I feel better after I cry but maybe it could be something else in the body removing the negative emotions that also causes crying as the side effect and not the crying that causes the removal of the negative emotions.

Answer 7

The older I became the less I cried. I discovered the physical pains I had after crying were worse than not crying. Headache, stuffed nose etc. I also learned over time that nothing will stop whatever is going to happen so smile and be brave and ready for when it comes.

Answer 8

I think it honestly helps us. I think it's more of an emotional thing than letting people know we're upset. For example, if I'm picked on really bad in school, I try not to cry, but sometimes cannot help it. I do not want to look like a baby. Sometimes I also sort of freak out on whoever picked on me ( usually nothing physical.)

Answer 9

Crying to me is sort of another emotion. I cry when things get extreme. Because I can get happy and just smile. But when something makes me extremely happy, that's when my tears come. That's how you know something has truely touched you emotinally, whether good or bad. Like the answer ^^^^^^ there..It's an expression of your emtions that makes you feel better in certain situations...

Answer 10

Yes, Jasmine, crying does help. It releases the bad feelings we have that led to crying. The next time you cry, notice how you feel afterwards. You will see that you feel better. Later you will also be able to think of better solutions to problems, as well. This is just as effective for men as it is for women.

The reason why we cry through our eyes, instead of, say, our fingers, is one of those big "Why" questions like why were we born on earth instead of another planet. It's bigger than we have the ability to answer.