I’ve been going through a lot recently. Multiple jobs, bills piling up, and my current relationship is falling apart. I want to cry. To bawl my eyes out and scream at the top of my lungs. But I can’t. It feels like there’s a wall between me and my emotions. Anyone else deal with this?
The thought that crying doesn’t do anything is misguided. It actually changes a lot internally. Like, sure, it doesn’t change your material circumstances but it absolutely has a proven effect on our mental well-being and ability to regulate emotions.
It helps us to process emotions of grief and tension. It’s catharsis. It has a physiological effect on our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. That exhaustion is the release of tension that, without it, the body isn’t recovering from.
So, on a rational level, yes, crying does actually make people feel better in the long term, even if it doesn’t immediately show signs of effectiveness.