Why do human beings cry? Crying is also positive

What is the emotional function of crying? Everything you should know about crying.

Babies and toddlers crying intensely. They cry because they are hungry, cold, afraid or in pain... They cry at school, at home, in the park and in the supermarket. Many of them cry at all hours or several times a day. It is clear that in the absence of oral language, the mechanism of crying allows children to demand the attention necessary for their care or to express discomfort, having a well-established adaptive function.It has a well-established adaptive function by obtaining as a result, the help of the adult who satisfies their most basic needs.

This adaptive advantage, which guarantees the survival of the species as a demand for help, especially in human infants, was already pointed out by Darwin in his research on the adaptation of species, as a universal phenomenon.

Why do adults cry?

The human being has the capacity to cry from birth to death, however, throughout the socioemotional development, the crying mechanism modulates its evolutionary function of survival, depending on the capacity of independence that it gains. In other words, it is less frequent for an adult to cry because he or she is cold or hungryThe adaptive mechanism will have shifted to more complex and resolute mobilization functions, channeling its resources to the active search for its own food or shelter.

But then, and especially in the first world, why do adults cry, if their basic needs are covered, do we cry less as adults because it is no longer useful to us, why are some people more prone to crying and others who have not cried for years, is it good for us to cry or is it the unhelpful expression of a simple discomfort? What is clear is that we are not talking about a mere Biological effect, but about a complex mechanism in which physiological, psychological and social functions converge.

The biological function of tears

Biologically, tears are necessary for the maintenance of good ocular health (eye lubrication (eye lubrication, cleaning or protection from external agents) but they are also associated with powerful emotional stimuli, and not exclusively negative ones such as sadness, anguish, pain or frustration...we also cry out of joy or surprise.

Crying and its relationship with emotional health

The understanding of crying in adult human beings and its relationship with emotional health has aroused great interest among experts and researchers. Some of the hypotheses that have been put forward (still without empirical support) are that through crying, certain hyperactivity is released.helping to establish a balance or reduce a punctual stress. It is true that many people express feeling more relaxed after crying, but this assessment is not generalizable since many others do not notice changes in their emotional state or may even feel worse.

Thanks to research, it has been discovered that the components of tears are different depending on the agent that produces them, so that the tears we secrete when we peel an onion are chemically different from the tears we generate due to emotional stress. In addition to typical tearing there are other physical changes associated with emotional weeping, such as reddening of the face, sobbing, hyperventilation... "Emotional" tears consist mainly of water, lipids, and other substances and differ from the others in that they contain a greater amount of hormones, which are usually associated with stress (prolactin, adrenocorticotropin and leucine enkephalins).

The importance of the autonomic nervous system

The control of crying depends on the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for restoring a state of rest or relaxation in the body after an effort, a stressor, a danger or a major bodily function (e.g. digestion). It has a complementary and antagonistic function to the sympathetic branch.

In the event of an alert or high levels of tension, the sympathetic branch is activated, the sympathetic branch would be activated preparing the organism for a possible fight or flight.The sympathetic branch, understanding that at that moment it is not intelligent to stop and cry, but to react in order to save life or solve a problem.

The parasympathetic, on the other hand, acts by inhibiting itself at that moment, to later restore the normal state after the alarm. It is when the danger has passed that we can allow ourselves to relax and collapse. This explains why many people endure powerful stressors and strong emotional shocks to which they react apparently well, and after a while it is when the emotional slump comes and crying breaks out.

Crying can help to relax

So can we say that crying helps to relax? For many people, we can say yes. It is really a form of emotional discharge necessary at certain times, very healthy and not at all harmful, which many prefer to reserve for solitude. Other people prefer to cry in company. Even if their demand does not refer to material resources of the other, crying allows to express and make a request for help which generally elicits an emotionally supportive response from the environment.

Crying activates in others their capacity for empathy and emotional protection, reinforcing certain personal relationships and attachments (any shoulder is not enough to cry on).

In spite of the important function of crying, there is still a barrier in society that protects us from this emotionality, as if it were something negative or something that should be eradicated. Many people perceive themselves as vulnerable, weak, helpless when they cry, having a negative effect on their self-image, which can worsen if they do not get the comfort they expect or need.

Socially, we are not very tolerant of crying

Socially, we can say that we are not very tolerant to the crying of others.. We know that they suffer and we are hurt by their crying. The natural reaction of consolation is to want to prevent the other party from this expression, either by gender "men don't cry", "don't be a crybaby", "crying is for girls", or by right "don't be like that", "don't cry", "tell me what you need but stop crying", "it's not worth crying about it". These very common expressions only reflect the discomfort that the emotional expression of the other person represents for us and the inability to cope with such intensity, such a request for help and emotional support that an adult needs.

Let us leave a space and a time to cry, let us assume that their presence is necessary, let us not feel committed to make the origin of the crying disappear, let us not try to argue the reasons for not crying, let us simply accompany this natural reaction and normalize its function and effect..