Is CRYING good?

We are used to being told “don't cry”, “it's not that bad”, “you have to be positive”, “that way they won't solve problems”... This, far from helping, makes one feel worse since to the discomfort that one has in itself, guilt for feeling bad is added.

Then, Is crying good or bad? Should we allow ourselves to do so, or does it only deepen the problem? Is it good to cry when you have depression? Does it relieve anxiety? Next, Psychology-Online we will answer these and many other questions.

Index

1. Types of crying
2. What is the use of crying?
3. Secondary discomfort
4. Is crying good or bad?

First of all, let's keep in mind that there are several types of crying. In childhood we would cry for hunger, cry for various discomforts and cry for pain. In adulthood, this would be simplified and we would only have two types of crying, the one of protest Y the one with pain, both physical and emotional.

What does the literature say? As easy as searching "is crying good?" on Google and you will find many articles that say yes. The same happens when you ask anyone. However, these answers are seldom based on any study. So what does the literature say about crying? The literature says it depends.

Crying at times can be very useful since, as we can know from our own experience, produces a feeling of release of tension and reduction of anxiety. It unburdens us.

However, the environment and the context in which we find ourselves acquire great importance and the benefits of crying will depend on the assessment of the environment and one's own:

• The fact that our cry be approved or not for others is what makes the difference in terms of its benefits. If crying awakens empathy in others, this gives us social support and therefore we brings infinite benefits.
• However, on other occasions, the crying only causes a rejection by the others. Therefore, for the fact of crying to provide health benefits for depressive symptoms or anxiety, it is appropriate to find an environment that validates that emotional expression.
• On the other hand, the fact of how we see ourselves when crying also influences the benefits of this act. If crying makes us feel weakLogically, it will not provide us with the same benefits as if we see the act of crying as a normal process in certain situations.

On the other hand, the fact of crying should not cause us guilt. On many occasions, we are not able to avoid this emotional suppression and, in addition, it is this emotional suppression that is causing us the highest level of stress. The secondary discomfort, therefore, is the feel bad for feeling bad. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focuses a large part of its attention on said suppression of emotions and chooses the way of accepting them and not seeing the emotions. negative emotions as enemies, but as part of a process in the face of a stressful event.

However, on the other hand, this therapy also works in the acceptance of that negative event and in letting go of those thoughts and emotions that cause us discomfort, so that our life can continue without being paralyzed by negative emotions.

All in all, we can conclude that crying is good for your health, but in its proper measure. It depends on the context and it depends on the form. It is not the same to cry for a few days after the death of a family member than to cry every day for months or years due to that death. Crying supposes a relief in the initial moments, later it increases the suffering, not only because of the fact of being "trapped" in that emotional state, but because the environment will end up rejecting us, so we will lose that social support that is so necessary. For that case, in this article we explain how to stop crying. Therefore, if we are in a state of depression, that relief function that crying has disappears and it is necessary to begin to carry out a certain suppression of crying in order to be able to get out of that emotional state.

On the other hand, we must bear in mind that the simple act of crying has not been shown to bring benefits in studies. Why is crying good? The only two benefits that have been proven scientifically they are that:

• The fact of crying warns us of a harmful situation, of danger, which prepares the body in case a possible defense or flight is necessary in a situation.
• On the other hand, transmits our emotional state to others, which is related to the most basic principle of the human being: the survival instinct. If others see us cry, at first, they will come to protect us, so crying serves as a transmission of information about a potentially harmful or dangerous situation.

Therefore, emotional regulation becomes key in this regard. Crying helps us as long as we do it in a good environment, in its proper measure and validating said emotion on our own part. If any of these three pillars is not adequate, the process of crying will only cause us more discomfort than we initially had. So crying is good for anxiety too.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Is crying good?, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.

• Fuller, B. F. (1991). Acoustic discrimination of three types of infant cries. Nursing Research, 40 (3), 156-160.
• Gross, J. J., Fredrickson, B. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1994). The psychophysiology of crying. Psychophysiology, 31(5), 460-468.
• Hendriks, M. C. P., Nelson, J. K., Cornelius, R. R., & Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M. (2008). Why crying improves our well-being: An attachment-theory perspective on the functions of adult crying. In A.J.J.M. Vingerhoets, I. Nyklicek, & J. Denollet (Eds.), Emotion regulation: Conceptual and clinical issues (pp. 87-96). New York: Springer.
• Hendriks, M., & Vingerhoets, A. (2002). Crying: is it beneficial for one's well-being?International Congress Series, 1241, 361-365. doi: 10.1016 / s0531-5131 (02) 00642-8.
• Riquelme, A., Buendía, J. & Rodríguez, M. C. (1993). Coping strategies and social support in people with economic stress. Psicothema 5 (1), 83-89.