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Why Cry?
Within somatic therapy, we have to understand that the body is fairly consistently producing hormones, whether those be calming (leptin or serotonin), loving (oxytocin), stressful (cortisol), fight or flight (adrenaline), or many others (Addi, Hormone harmony: The inside story of balance, 2024).
When we cry, our body is releasing excess hormones. Crying helps our bodies shift from a state of fight or flight to our regulated window of tolerance. This quickly can help relieve your body from high distress states into a self-soothing state.
Crying is caused by several factors, such as removing irritants from your eyes (reflex tears), lubricating (basal tears), or ‘psychic’ tears, which are the emotional responses for crying. When crying from high emotional states, our bodies release a neurotransmitter called leucine enkephalin (“The Microscopic Structures of Dried Human Tears.” Smithsonian, Nov. 19, 2013) that is a natural painkiller!
I’m crying, but not sad, why…