Why Your Body May Need to Shed Some Tears, Even if You Don't Feel Sad

It has been a big week and you feel exhausted, and suddenly you find yourself crying at a nice commercial. You want to cry because your partner used up all the milk when you were struck with a cold.

You may be sad about being sick, but why the tears? You cannot hold things together.

Multiple psychological functions are served by tears. When we feel sad or happy, tears act as a physical indicator of our emotional state.

The central autonomic network is activated by strong emotions inside our brains.

The sympathetic system and the parasympathetic nervous system are part of the network.

The sympathetic part of the system is activated when we cry, making us feel better.

What happens when we're stressed or tired?

From a young age, we are trained to control our emotions and refrain from physical displays of negative emotion.

Crying at work is usually seen as less acceptable than crying during a sad movie.

The central autonomic network helps us regulate the emotional response to deal with our emotions in controlled ways by releasing signals from the prefrontal cortex. The main processor of your computer is the prefrontal cortex.

The sympathetic system is activated if we experience extended periods of physical or emotional pain.

The prefrontal cortex is like a computer with too many programs running at once.

The brain becomes less able to regulate our emotions in the expected way, resulting in visible emotional responses, such as tears or angry outbursts.

We might not even realize how overwhelmed we are until we are crying.

Some people cry more than others. Women cry more than men, though the extent to which this is due to biological aspects versus expectations of society is unclear.

People who score high on personality traits are more likely to cry.

The brain is overwhelmed with emotional pain and excessive crying can be a sign of depression.

What's the point of tears?

Emotions play a number of social roles. Our society disapproves of strong expressions of emotions, but tears help to create and sustain social bonds.

It is possible for tears to act as a cry for help.

Feelings of sympathy are generated by tears, helping us connect with others.

When we feel sympathy for another person, we can cry along with them, which strengthens social bonds.

There are also physical reasons for tears.

We work hard to keep our eyes open when we are tired. Our eyes are moist so we can see clearly.

Watery eyes are a common symptom of respiratory illnesses.

White blood cells are used to fight infections in the body. These extra white blood cells can cause the eye ducts to get blocked, which can cause tears.

Humans have tears as part of their functioning. Sometimes there is nothing better than a good cry to relieve overwhelming emotions, especially with the pressures the past few years have brought.

If you find yourself crying excessively, it's a good idea to talk to your doctor.

The University of Melbourne has an associate professor named Peggy Kern.

This article is free to use under a Creative Commons license. The original article is worth a read.