BBC News School Report @ LCS

Emotions not Weakness

Studies have shown that crying can be good for your mental health and can be a good way to relieve stress. However people avoid crying or talking about crying because they are scared of others thinking they’re weak, especially when it comes to men and boys. This is most likely because they are worried about their masculinity and how people view them in this area. In fact, calling people a cry baby or telling them they’re crying like a girl can be damaging to men’s and boys mental health. It’s basically saying they can’t show their emotions! Later in life they could lose touch with their emotions and feelings. This can lead to depression and anxiety disorders.

Feeling Anxious?

When feeling anxious, it can be good for you to cry as it is a common and useful response to whatever problem you might be having. However woman are three times more likely to cry than a man because of anxiety. Also women are twice as likely to say that they felt better after they have cried. This is from a Populus poll of 2,063 adults. Lots of these people who don’t cry or admit to crying won’t know that crying can decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and other stress-related disorders because it relieves that much stress.

Feel Good!

Tears contain toxins that release feel good chemicals trough out you body. This might be helpful if you are dealing with something very grief filling in your life, from a death in your family to a break up. Even though it might take months to get over a death, letting your feelings flow and crying can be very helpful. You should talk to someone too and don’t just cry on you own. Going to therapy after a death or talking to a family member is a good time to let out your emotions is a safe way.

Be careful crying…

While crying about losses or break up can be good for you, if you are crying and degrading your self-worth, it can be bad for your self-esteem. Self-criticising cancels out the healing. Don’t think about if you’ve done anything wrong or if you think that you’ve been stupid because it might make a small bad thing become life consuming.

Don’t be afraid!

So crying is good for you as long as you don’t self- criticise, so you shouldn’t be scared of letting someone know if you’re upset. This could be a family member, teacher or friend as long as you’re comfortable with them. This is just one way to stay healthy, so make sure you’re trying your best to be as healthy as you can, mentally and physically.