Everything You Wanted to Know About the 5 Benefits of Crying and Were Too Embarrassed to Ask

You are not a weak willed person for crying, it is totally okay to cry away. Crying is not for the children or your young kids only; as long as you have emotions and feelings and you aren’t dead you can cry. The benefits of crying can be great for your well being.

The unfortunate thing is that most adults perceive crying as a form of weakness that will make you be shamed, embarrassed and ostracised by everyone else.

The mantra to children ‘Be brave, don’t cry’ might not be the most helpful because some believe crying can actually help you reduce pain.

You do not live in a perfect world; you do not wake up every day feeling happy and jovial. Life happens as long as you are alive, you encounter a misfortune or something out of your control happens to you.

During these trying and dark days crying seems the best thing to do. What if I tell you that there are benefits of crying?

88.8% of people feel better after crying, with 8.4% feeling worse according to Net Doctor.

Yeah you got that right; you can cry without worry or fear because you are actually doing something good for yourself.

So let’s find out what these benefits are one by one.

1. Terrific Stress Reliever.

Yes one of the great benefits of crying is that it's a relief from stress.

You feel hurt and abandoned, an unfair situation has struck you and the only thing you can think of is not to go out but sleep and cry away to your sorrows. That stressful situation is so overwhelming that you really can’t think straight, you don’t see a way out of this.

You start crying, tears rolling down your cheeks with the question why me and why did this happen to me ever present. After crying for quite a while, you feel an easiness or calmness all over you.

What just happened, did your problems end instantly or you have just realised a new perspective and how to cope with this situation.

It seems too good to be true, that tells me that the last time you cried was when you were a young kid in school. Don’t hold down your tears saying to yourself that you are strong. You are actually not strong because you aren’t facing your real emotions.

According to Psychology Today, 85% of women and 73% of men said that they felt better after crying, which shows that tears may help remove chemicals that build up after stress.

Stress dragging you down, you should cry it will do well for you.

2. Deadly Toxins Are Released.

When you are stressful, there are toxins which flood your body. These toxins are of course not good and they have to be released or gotten rid of in one way or another. You will not talk out or complain the toxins out of your body, so you have to cry to get rid of them.

Stress isn’t the best thing for you in terms of health, these toxins are part of the stress, for them to stay in your body is pretty bad.

Crying has incredible benefits for you, you aren’t weird to cry. Cry out and the toxins are long gone.

A study conducted by Dr. William H. Frey II, a biochemist and director of the Psychiatric Research Laboratories at the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, found like other exocrine processes, including exhaling, urinating, and sweating, toxic substances are released from the body when we cry.

Several of the chemicals present in emotional crying are the protein prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormones, and the endorphin leucine-encephalin, which reduces pain according to Medical Daily.

3. Tears Clear Your Amazing Eyes.

As you go about your daily activities, your eyes gets all kind of foreign objects like dust, this foreign material collects in the eyes. There has to be a way you can get rid of these objects without trying to handpick them from your eyes (do not do this).

The best and only way is with your tears. So cry your eyes out so that your tears can do their magic.

According to Psychology Today, tears protectively lubricate your eyes, remove irritants, reduce stress hormones, and they contain antibodies that fight pathogenic microbes.

This has to be one of those benefits of crying that most people don't know about. Therefor you don't need to get embarrassed, you are doing your eyes a good favour.

4. You Face Your Authentic and Real Emotions.

Your friend, family and neighbour always seem a happy person and you can’t tolerate thoughts that he or she is angry, scared, embarrassed or fearful.

We all have a certain image we present to the world as this is Lucy, Kevin, Michael or Kim. This is your public image, maybe a smiling person who rarely gets angry.

It’s exhausting to have to always present this image 24/7, 7 days in a week and 12 months in a year. Now you know why depression is so high in these times.

You are not confronting your real emotions. It is nothing to be ashamed of that you cannot always be a happy or jovial person. Crying will help you in this situation, face and confront what you really feel.

Research from the mental health charity Mind has found that four in five 18 to 34 year old men put on a brave face when they are anxious.

Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health problems and Mind believes that crying is both powerful and proactive way to counter its adverse effects according to The Telegraph.

5. You Are Able to Say a Wonderful Goodbye or Farewell to a Loved One.

This is not only in situations where you have a deceased loved one gone from this world. When your loved one goes to a faraway place such as another country or continent for an extended time for example soldiers, you’ll have watery eyes.

It can also be when you first went to school or the first time you got into college which wasn’t a stone throw away and your parents cried their eyes out.

According to Conflict to Peace in Relationships, tips for a healthy goodbye are that you let yourself have your feelings. Allow yourself to have sadness and tears. We have a tendency to say to people, “Don’t cry. It will be okay.”

This is the worst thing you can say or have someone say to you. You need to cry. Crying is healthy for you. Tears release hormones which help you feel better crying is a normal part of loss especially if people leaving meant a lot to you.

These moments where saying goodbye and farewell was made much easier by crying and have tears roll down your cheeks.

One of the lesser known benefits of crying, as you face your real emotions. Whether sad, angry or happy you will face them with a tear on your cheek.

Conclusion

Crying is not bad or a form of weakness, to the contrary it the best thing you can do to your body and health. It’s a sort of self-therapy that does not involve countless hours talking about this and that.

I’m not saying therapy is bad, it will be great for anyone who cries a lot. If crying like every day is a habit you’ve developed then you need help. You are clearly overdoing it and that isn’t good.

There are benefits of crying but don’t take this as an excuse to overdo it and reap the benefits. As the saying says, too much of something is poisonous. Take good care of yourself and be real and true to self. It’s totally okay that you cry once in a while.

Do you know of any other crying benefits I haven’t mentioned? How do you feel after crying?

Do tell and share in the comments section below. Also share this with your friends and family, sharing is caring.

-Michael Kamenya