7 Good Reasons to Cry Your Eyes Out

I found this very interesting and helpful.

7 Good Reasons To Cry Your Eyes Out
By Therese J. Borchard
June 6, 2009


1. Tears help us see.

Starting with the most basic function of tears, they enable us to see. Literally. Tears not only lubricate our eyeballs and eyelids, they also prevent dehydration of our various mucous membranes. No lubrication, no eyesight. Writes Bergman: ?Without tears, life would be drastically different for humans?in the short run enormously uncomfortable, and in the long run eyesight would be blocked out altogether.?

2. Tears kill bacteria.

No need for Clorox wipes. We?ve got tears! Our own antibacterial and antiviral agent working for us, fighting off all the germs we pick up on community computers, shopping carts, public sinks, and all those places the nasty little guys make their homes and procreate. Tears contain lysozyme, a fluid that the germaphobic dreams about in her sleep, because it can kill 90 to 95 percent of all bacteria in just five to 10 minutes! Which translates, I?m guessing, to three months? worth of colds and stomach viruses.

3. Tears remove toxins.

Biochemist William Frey, who has been researching tears for as long as I?ve been searching for sanity, found in one study that emotional tears?those formed in distress or grief?contained more toxic byproducts than tears of irritation (think onion peeling). Are tears toxic then? No! They actually remove toxins from our body that build up courtesy of stress. They are like a natural therapy or massage session, but they cost a lot less!

4. Crying can elevate mood.

Do you know what your manganese level is? No, neither do I. But chances are that you will feel better if it?s lower because overexposure to manganese can cause bad stuff: anxiety, nervousness, irritability, fatigue, aggression, emotional disturbance and the rest of the feelings that live inside my happy head rent-free. The act of crying can lower a person?s manganese level. And just like with the toxins I mentioned in my last point, emotional tears contain 24 percent higher albumin protein concentration?responsible for transporting many small molecules (which has to be a good thing, right?)?than irritation tears.

5. Crying lowers stress.

Tears really are like perspiration in that exercising and crying both relieve stress. For real. In his article, Bergman explains that tears remove some of the chemicals built up in the body from stress, like the endorphin leucine-enkaphalin and prolactin, the hormone I overproduce because of my pituitary tumor that affects my mood and stress tolerance. The opposite is true too. Bergman writes, ?Suppressing tears increases stress levels, and contributes to diseases aggravated by stress, such as high blood pressure, heart problems, and peptic ulcers.?

6. Tears build community.

In her ?Science Digest? article, writer Ashley Montagu argued that crying not only contributes to good health, but it also builds community. I know what you?re thinking: ?Well, yeah, but not the right kind of community. I mean, I might ask the woman bawling her eyes out behind me in church what?s wrong or if I can help her, but I?m certainly not going to invite her to dinner.? I beg to differ. As a prolific crier, especially on video, I always come away astounded by the comments ? the resounding support of people I don?t know all that well, and the level of intimacy exchanged among them. Read for yourselves some of the comments on both my self-esteem video and my recent death and dying video and you?ll appreciate my point. Tears help communication and foster community.

7. Tears release feelings.

Even if you haven?t just been through something traumatic or are severely depressed, the average Joe goes through his day accumulating conflicts and resentments. Sometimes they gather inside the limbic system of the brain and in certain corners of the heart. Crying is cathartic. It lets the devils out before they wreak all kind of havoc with the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Writes John Bradshaw in his bestseller ?Home Coming?: ?All these feelings need to be felt. We need to stomp and storm; to sob and cry; to perspire and tremble.?

I think I need a good cry.

My eyes are totally bloodshot this weekend and I don't know why so a good flush out by tears may be a good idea.

Any sad movies on tonight?

this will make you cry it did me its costing ?218.50 to gizzies ashes and wooden casket home,the oney didnt mean a thing it was a foot note saying we are sorry for gizzies loss to you all,and georgie to the vets next week x

I rarely cry. I wish I could, but something is wrong with me. My tears are all blocked up. I know I need to cry but I can't. I would like to cry again . . . the sooner the better.

This is very true. I've never forgotten Holly Hunter in "Broadcast News" who was so tough in her journalist role but would just put time aside to cry, then recover and get on with her day.

f***KKK

I never cry...
maybe that's why I'm so stressed all the time..
someone make me cry..

Four-eyes.
lol.

"Words break no bones, just hearts", Words can also mend hearts. The low European Vote makes me cry. I'm so disappointed, all those who struggled for us to get the right to vots and so many don't even register. Please do register and see if you qualify for a postal vote. Please encourrage everyone to do this. We must make history not just study it.

Tears fogs your contact lenses, gives you puffy eyelids. Plugs up your nose and gives you a sinus headache.

I ain't got any left.
One monotonous moment to another monotonous moment.

I think that the OP has presented some valid points. Crying IMO is a function of ones emotional makeup that many of us are mistakenly taught to suppress. I think that at times crying is as good a tonic for us as laughter is.

I actually have cried twice since writing I cannot cry. Once was doing the movie "The Reader" which really tore at me. I realize that theatre is a good way of allowing my tears to surface. Ironically, one of the characters pointed this out in the film.

And then I cried because I had an argument with my best friend at work and I felt terrible about it. She was upset, too.

Next year, we will have a somewhat different department ... different people. We all can be very sensitive. It is a going to be like we are all walking on eggshells.