Why Crying it out is Helpful - Video Transcript

Hey everyone. I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist and today I'm going to be talking about crying and I can't tell you the number of times that a client has been in session and started crying and apologized for it. And it's like if there's anywhere in the world that it's acceptable to cry and that you won't be judged for it. It's in a therapy session.

However, this just speaks to the sort of social stay stigma that's attached to this act. And I think a lot of times we grow up with the belief that the act of crying is somehow indicative of the fact that we're weak or that we can't handle emotions when in contrary it actually points to the opposite.

So crying, crying is a very normal reaction to emotions and it helps us regulate emotion. It helps us discharge stress and tension and it calms our bodies and minds. So after the act of crying it's it's likely that you'll experience a sort of a sense of ease or relief relating to whatever it is that's bothering you, that you're crying about crying also releases oxytocin and endorphins.

Um these are both feel good chemicals. Oxytocin is sometimes referred to as the love hormone because it kind of creates this feeling of euphoria and bonding and connectedness to other people. And then um endorphins help to reduce stress and improve mood. So together the oxytocin and endorphins really helped to ease both physical and emotional pain. And so that's why um you know crying sort of activates these these chemicals and um activates our parasympathetic nervous system and this is the branch of the nervous system that is responsible for um restoring our body to a state of balance. You might hear it referred to as the rest and digest part of our nervous system. That's because um it's responsible for a lot of the internal processes that occur when we're in a resting state, such as the digestion of food.

So um I just want you to take some time to reflect on sort of how how crying shows up in your life. And some of the messages that you've received about crying. I think, especially for my male clients, a lot of them have grown up with this idea that boys can't cry and they have to be strong.

And all of all of these really kind of toxic messages around crying and what that can lead to is if those emotions are internalized and blocked, then they can come out in other ways they can manifest physically. They can come out as anger and aggression or anxiety or depression or whatnot. So it's really important for you to allow yourself to have that release when you do feel the urge to cry.

So I hope this was educational and helpful. Be sure to follow me at cathartic space counseling on both facebook and instagram. And if you want to learn more about me and my practice, check out my website cathartic space counseling dot com. I hope you all have a great weekend, I'll see you next week.