Tears Can Provide Powerful Pain Relief

If you suffer with chronic pain from any source, crying about it may offer a fast route to temporary relief.

You'd be surprised to see how many people cut themselves off from their emotions and refuse to cry. It's easy to understand this of men who grow up hearing "Big boys don't cry!" so steel themselves against tears, even during excruciating pain.

But it's also common in women, especially women who held jobs with managerial responsibility. That's because women who run their own business or have management positions in corporations often feel the same pressures men do to suppress honest emotions.

Suppressing emotions can cause problems-especially for people with chronic pain. Stress builds up. Muscles tighten. And pain increases. Cry, and the stress is released. "Tears," said author Albert Richard Smith, "are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it."

But don't brush this off by saying it's "just" stress relief. Crying is one of the systems nature gives us for reducing pain and the way it does it is so multifaceted as to seem almost magical.

The human brain is capable of releasing uncounted numbers of chemicals, and to release them in combinations that may number into the thousands. Crying is one of the signals that tell the brain it's time to begin releasing chemical compounds. And the compounds it chooses to release actually depend on the reason you are crying!

That's right-tears of joy actually have a different chemical composition then tears of pain.

Tears of pain induce the brain to release chemicals that help us relax, reduce stress and decrease our sensitivity to pain. That's why we often feel so much better after we cry.

There's a reason children sit down and sob when they cut a finger or scrape a knee. Children, still unshaped by social pressure, do what comes naturally. It's only as adults that we learn to let our conscious minds stand in the way of our unconscious and very instinctive abilities to heal ourselves.

Next time you feel the grip of pain, or feel overwhelmed by the havoc that pain has brought to your life, sit down and let yourself cry. Nature wants you to.

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