According to some famous authors:
And whether it's tears of joy or sorrow, the moments that cause us to choke up can tell us a lot about ourselves. ( Michael Trimble)
Crying, as well as other sorts of intense emotional experience, can help highlight for us what's important and what we need to focus on (Lauren Bylsma Ph.D)We all have experienced crying either after a breakup, or a loss of a loved one or just after a hard day at work and it often makes us feel better and help us put things in perspective. Research have shown both some beneficial as well as harmful effects of crying.
A Brief Physiology Related To Crying:
A neuronal connection between the lacrimal gland (tear duct) in the eyes and the areas of the human brain involved with emotions have been well established. Some scientist believe that only humans can shed tears in response to emotions.
It is interesting to know that tears that are shed while emotional crying have a different chemical composition compared to other types of tears.
The exact theory about why a person cries in response to emotional feelings is still unknown but just to simplify it is response to pain either physical or psychological.
Why Do We Cry?
It is both a simple as well a difficult question. Crying may be considered a response to some feelings of helplessness. A person may cry when hears a devastating news and has a feeling of being powerless over it and unable to influence it.
At times crying may be a survival mechanism and helps up release a buildup of feelings inside our mind.
Sometimes people may cry to signal a problem or to gain support from others during time of stress. Crying may sometimes elicit compassion and guilt. But again crying in majority of the situations is sudden and without one's control over it. It is difficult or almost impossible to make oneself cry without the emotional feelings inside.
Some Interesting Information About Crying:
Several factors play a role in the individual's crying.
1. Gender differences in crying is well known and it is seen that women cry more often than men. The exact reason is not known but it is a cultural as well as hormonal influence. Men are just not considered to be crying and is considered for them to be behaving like kids or women if they cry. Men not only cry less often but also for shorter time compared to women.
2. Cultural as well as socioeconomic factors also influence crying. It has been observed that people living in more poorer condition cry less often compared to those with high standards of living although they have a lot to cry for. It is because some cultures do not except the emotional feelings or they have just adapted to the life style.
3. Young babies cry and it is the only way of their communication and express feelings of fear, hunger, discomfort etc.
4. Effects of crying are different depending on the person who is crying as well as the reason behind this cry. Some people who are already suffering from an anxiety disorder or mood changes may suffer form negative changes when they cry.
5. At times crying has positive effects like it helps decreases the stress level within the body, decrease the unpleasant arousal associated with emotional stress as well as helps in normal breathing, heart rate and sweating.
6. Some people are more likely to cry than others. This may be due to individual personality differences. Some individuals have a lower threshold of crying and a small emotional feeling or even a film scene can make them cry.
7. It is also known that at times of sudden , unexpected emotional news , a person cannot cry out immediately, instead goes numb, the reason may be that the mind is unable to accept the real stress and feeling and later when the reality is accepted the person cries out a lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment