My stomach drops. My lip quivers. My voice tightens. I blink my eyes.My eyes burn a bit as I try to hold back as much as possible. No matter how hard I try, the tears begin to flow. Any one that knows me, even the slightest, knows I am a cryer. I cry at the happiest of things, the saddest of things and just about everything in between. But why? Why does my body have this natural instinct to shed water droplets from my eyes when I’m feeling some sort of more intense emotion.
I learned while researching this, that there are all different sorts of tears. One type of tear is constantly being produced, so in a way we are always crying. These are produced in the lacrimal glands and is called basal lubrication which keeps your eyes from drying out. Then we have reflex tears that act in response to an irritant. This is why your eyes tear when cutting an onion, when you something in your eye, etc.
Now, I’m most curious about the cause of emotional tears. Surprisingly, scientists still have not reached a perfectly clear answer, but there are plenty of theories. It’s been proven that emotional tears, when compared to reflex tears, have a much different make up. Reflex tears are mostly composed of water, while emotional tears have hormones in them, all being hormones that are produced when stressed. This leads scientists to believe that crying is the bodies way of getting rid of these stress hormones through the tears. This makes so much sense because, “Otherwise, stress hormones would reach harmful levels within the body. Indeed, this explanation fits well with the anecdotal knowledge that crying allows us to feel better” (Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science)
Another reason I thought about and found support for, is that that crying is almost like blushing, laughing, smiling, pursing your lips, etc. They are all bodily signals. They show the people around us what we are feeling, so our emotions aren’t such a mystery all the time. When you see someone crying it’s an automatic hint that they are in need of attention and support. Even if they are happier tears! It makes perfect sense that our bodies would come up with a way to physically show what we are feeling. Otherwise, every one would be boring and too much of a mystery.
Now next time I cry I’ll think about this and hopefully be more at peace!
This video also explains it very concisely! All the AsapScience videos are so great! I’m sure you’ll end up checking out a few 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGdHJSIr1Z0&list=UUC552Sd-3nyi_tk2BudLUzA
