The Muddled Tracks of All Those Tears - To Cry or not to cry?

[groovedaddy]

They’re considered a release, a psychological tonic, and to many a glimpse of something deeper: the heart’s own sign language, emotional perspiration from the well of common humanity.

Tears lubricate love songs and love, weddings and funerals, public rituals and private pain, and perhaps no scientific study can capture their many meanings.

“I cry when I’m happy, I cry when I’m sad, I may cry when I’m sharing something that’s of great significance to me,” said Nancy Reiley, 62, who works at a women’s shelter in Tampa, Fla., “and for some reason I sometimes will cry when I’m in a public speaking situation.

“It has nothing to do with feeling sad or vulnerable. There’s no reason I can think of why it happens, but it does.”

Now, some researchers say that the common psychological wisdom about crying — crying as a healthy catharsis — is incomplete and misleading. Having a “good cry” can and usually does allow people to recover some mental balance after a loss. But not always and not for everyone, argues a review article in the current issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. Placing such high expectation on a tearful breakdown most likely sets some people up for emotional confusion afterward.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/health/03mind.html?th&emc=th

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. If nobody notices and acts to comfort you, you feel horrible.

I have never cried in front of other people to gain sympathy.

I just got to where I didn't give a damn what other people thought about me.

And often times I couldn't physically control the stress and stop it.

If they think I am a bad person, or manipulating them, that is their interpretation.

If they don't notice, that's their actions, not mine.