If you’re a woman, you cry five times a month or so. If you are a man, you cry about once every four weeks. I don’t know about you, but my eyes well up not only when I perceive something sad but whenever anyone else’s eyes well up. So what are we all crying about and why?

No other animals cry as we do, not even our closest relative, the apes. As do other animals, apes have tear ducts but it is only for cleaning and bathing the eye. From a Dec. 06, article in Scientific American Mind, “genetic mutations evolved a neuronal connection between the gland that generates tears and the part of the brain that feels, senses and expresses deep emotion”. What prompted this genetic mutation is up for speculation but researchers seem to think that crying in the human being is a highly developed form of communication that signals pain or distress. It can be surmised that our ancestors had this form of communication to help them survive and even thrive because it bonded them together like no other animal. And according to the article, this allowed our species to emerge as “the most successful and congnitively complex of all the creatures on the planet”.

There are many reasons why we cry. It can be a simple signal of pain or distress, or a signal that the walls of our defenses are down. The intense emotion that accompanies our most vulnerable moment allow us to see each other as ‘human’. It boils all our experiences down to its most common denominator and we can ‘relate’. These are the tears that bind human communities together more successfully than may have been possible otherwise.




So our crying has brought us closer together. What other reason might there be for crying? According to William H. Frey, II, a biochemist at the University of Minnesota, he found that emotional tears are loaded with hormones, such as adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), which humans produce when under stress. Tears also contain concentrations of manganese, protein, potassium and prolactin which controls the neurotransmitter receptors in the lacrimal glands that release tears. Frey also discovered interesting aspects about the chemicals in tears. He discovered high concentrations of manganese in the brains of people suffering from chronic despression. Excessive ACTH indicates increased anxiety and stress. And higher levels of prolactin are found in women which may explain why women tend to cry more often.

But because so many hormones exist in tears, researchers are beginning to consider that crying may be an outlet or ‘reset’ button. James J. Gross of Stanford University speculated that even though crying does upset us, it may ultimately have a calming effect. The findings of other similar studies suggest that we don’t cry because we are upset but because we are trying to “get over being upset”. In this way, the basic reason for this emotional discharge is to “reset the breaker on our emotional circuit”.

If this is true, then social conditioning for avoiding crying, especially in men, may actually be bad for us. Perhaps if we didn’t have this safety valve for internal emotional pressure, we would blow a gasket. Given the every day stress that modern man faces, we should perhaps reconsider ‘holding it all in’ and being stoic at all costs. If you don’t allow yourself a good cry every now and then, you may find yourself at a severe disadvantage just as our ancestors years ago may have been without this useful human survival technique. So, go ahead and cry. It’s good for you.