Benefits of Crying

Something that comes up in therapy sometimes is the question of crying. It comes up most often in my work because there is an attitude of crying as pointless or a waste of time. We certainly get this message in society, particularly for masculine presenting folx.

But did you know that there are actually health benefits to crying?

From a psychological perspective we view crying as a mechanism to release stress and emotional activation (whether from pain, sadness, anger or even happiness).

Tears that are emotional in nature flush stress hormones and other toxins out of our system. Tears release oxytocin and endogenous opioids, which are both feel-good chemicals and can help ease the emotional pain that drove the tears in the first place.

We know from research that suppressing or stuffing our emotions also come with negative health consequences such as a less responsive immune system and is associated with a number of inflammatory diseases.

So please know that you are not weak, or broken or wrong for crying. Let those feelings out!