If you are a parent, you may have mixed emotions about crying. When your child is born and starts to scream out a cry, it is a sign that everything is ok. It is also the first reliable form of communication that a baby is capable of during the first few months of their existence. Later on in a child’s life, it is a sign that there is something wrong, that they hurt themselves, or they are upset with you.
To a varying extent, we seem to do most of our crying when we are young. But in our teens and through to our adult years, of course, many of us cry for various reasons. How often do you cry? Is it because of problems in your life, movies that you watch, or is it that you are overly sensitive? For me, my eyes often well up when I see people with tears of joy. Things like YouTube videos of people hearing for the first time seem to always do it for me.
But is crying really good for you? I don’t think this is a simple answer to this question. I could definitely say that crying too much is not good. It could be a sign of depression. It is common in a type of depression called Situational Depression.
Situational Depression is an official type of depression listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the mental health professional’s handbook. It basically refers to people who are suffering from depression due to an event. It could be triggered by the loss of a loved one, or other traumatizing event. One of the major differences between normal grief and Situational Depression is that it lasts longer than 3 months; however, it is a much shorter lived compared to Clinical Depression.
Crying, on the other hand, can have some positive effects on our mood. Research was conducted on women before and after watching an emotional movie. The women who cried were found to have a reduction in their cortisol, stress hormone, and therefore an improvement in their mood. Other research has produced surprising results, finding that crying can also help to remove toxic substances from our blood.
So crying is not all always doom and gloom. But definitely if you find yourself crying a lot more than usual, you need to speak to someone close to you. I am also here to help.
storysolutionstherapy@gmail.com
