Cry Your Eyes Out: 10 Reasons Crying Is Good For You

For some people, crying is a sign of weakness or emotional frailty.

Historically, shedding tears has been viewed as a feminine action, and boys were (and still are) discouraged from engaging in this display of emotion. However, scientific studies are gradually dispelling this harsh societal norm. Researchers are proving what many individuals have known intuitively throughout time: there’s nothing like a good cry to make you feel better. Crying is often the response to emotional distress, such as sorrow, fear, or loneliness, although it can also be a result of happy occasions, too. While the emotional benefits have long been well-known, scientists have pinpointed the biological processes behind crying and the physical relief it brings.Negative emotions, like grief, often trigger the fight-or-flight response and flood the body with cortisol and adrenaline. Weeping helps to reduce the production of these chemicals.

Overall, crying helps to calm the body down, and one of the ways it does this is by lowering blood pressure. Several studies analyzed the blood pressure in patients both before and after they had engaged in intense therapy sessions, during which they vented their emotions and cried. Researchers found an immediate decrease in blood pressure after such sessions, along with a lower heart rate. Being in an emotional state with stress hormones raging in one’s body for an extended period of time raises the risk for stroke and heart attack; according this study, though, crying does reduce a person’s blood pressure and thus the risk for these maladies as well.