7 Powerful Reasons for Uncontrollable Tearfulness and Crying You Shouldn’t Ignore

Definition

Tearfulness is a person’s tendency to cry frequently for little or no reason. It manifests itself as increased tearfulness and emotional instability, sudden bouts of crying. Common accompanying symptoms are anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, depression, and despondency. Tearfulness can be a character trait, a sign of a disease, or a situationally determined reaction. The complaint is analyzed through a discussion and observation of the patient. Symptomatic therapy includes rhythmic breathing and distraction techniques, psychotherapy, taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

General characteristics         

Crying is a psychophysiological reaction that is accompanied by the release of tears, a sharp change in the rhythm of breathing, blood pressure and heartbeat, involuntary contraction of the superciliary and periorbital muscles. In origin, it is a strong, one-time mental experience that occurs in response to intense negative or positive stimuli. From a social point of view crying is a approach of uttering strong emotions. In juvenile physical discomfort is a common cause of tears. As we grow older, such a reaction weakens, but can persist in women with increased emotional lability .

The term tearfulness denotes a character trait & temporary feature of the emotional volitional sphere. It manifests itself as emotional instability, tearfulness: a person cries every day, the cause of tears is random memories, a tense conversation, an unpleasant intonation of the interlocutor, a scene from a movie. Often, it reduces social activity, prevents the maintenance of close relationships, provokes irritability, misunderstanding from others.

Tearfulness is more common in women and children than in men. This is explained by biological reasons: women have more pronounced hormonal fluctuations (pregnancy, childbirth, menstrual cycle), children have a labile nervous system, so they easily become excited even by minor stimuli. The national influence similarly touches increased in women compared to men. Sensitivity & tearfulness are recognized as feminine traits. While tears  of men  are assessed as a demonstration of weakness.

Causes of tearfulness

Tearfulness is often a symptom of a mental disorder – depression or neurasthenia. In addition, it can be caused by hormonal changes, diseases of the central nervous system, fatigue or chronic stress. The causes of tearfulness are varied, often it is provoked by external events, but has a physiological basis.

Predisposing physiological factors

Some people are said to be tearful since childhood, while others are said to never cry. Tearfulness most often develops on the basis of a physiological predisposition, which consists of the peculiarities of the functioning of the nervous system, the rate of production of certain hormones. Increased can be caused by the following reasons:

• Instability of the nervous system. With an unstable type of nervous activity, the processes of excitation and inhibition quickly replace each other, which is externally manifested by frequent mood swings, sudden emotional outbursts. People with this feature by temperament type are classified as melancholic or choleric. it is characteristic of them from birth.

• Hormonal imbalance. Irritability and tearfulness increase during periods of hormonal changes in the body in women: during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, menopause , after childbirth. Increased production of some hormones and a lack of others lead to changes in the activity of the brain areas responsible for the emotional state.
• Physical overload. If the body is not prepared intense sports & heavy physical labor are a source of stress. Disrupting functioning of internal organs & systems. Gamble is difficult to abundantly return gift & cantankerousness increase, fatigue accumulates. A state of exhaustion gradually develops.
• Vitamin deficiency. The cause of this with poor nutrition is a lack of B vitamins.. With their deficiency, irritability increases, mood and performance decrease, insomnia develops , appetite worsens. With prolonged hypovitaminosis , depression, neuroses, hormonal disorders, and beriberi disease develop .

Emotional factors

Psychological causes of include personality traits formed during life and external stressful psychotraumatic effects. Depending on this, people are distinguished as tearful by nature, and those whose excessive is explained by a difficult situation. The most obvious causes of tearfulness are:

• Peculiarities of upbringing. The reason for a child’s tearfulness is the attitude of the parents. Sometimes crying becomes a tool to attract the attention of adults and get what they want. If parents do everything to stop the tears – buy toys, allow the child not to go home from a walk, not to wash – the child develops hysterical character traits. Another reason for tearfulness is self-doubt, fears, a feeling of uselessness. This type of character is called neurasthenic. With inadequate darling & provision from parents increases.
• Stress. Negative experiences caused by a traumatic situation or daily minor troubles can lead to a state of stress. Thanks to this, a person maintains the same working capacity and emotional balance. Then comes the stage of exhaustion  the body gets tired of fighting and adverse effects continue. On the physiological level, this is manifested by headaches and general malaise, on the psychological level – tearfulness, irritability, depression.
• Routine. Not only stress, but also routine in everyday life can lead to nervous exhaustion. In situations of monotonous work with repetitive stereotypical actions and an impoverished external environment, working capacity decreases. Women are especially susceptible to emotional disorders.

Mental disorders

Tearfulness and increased develop with some mental disorders. All of them are accompanied by a decrease in the body’s adaptive abilities, fatigue, depression, and emotional instability. Patients cry often, do not always have an external reason for tears, and do not control their condition. Tearfulness container be a symptom of the following disorders:

• Depression . In depressive disorders, patients are almost constantly in a state of low mood, sadness, sorrow. They have no interest in what is happening, so it is difficult to distract them and cheer them up. Tears and crying appear easily, often without external causes.
• Astheno-neurotic syndrome. Neurasthenia occurs with a combination of psychotraumatic effects and intense physical or mental stress.  Chronic lack of sleep , emotional burnout can be a provoking factor. It manifests itself as irritability, easy fatigue, tearfulness.
• PTSD . Sometimes, unexplained is a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. Sudden tears are caused by memories of terrible scenes and traumatic events from the past. Images pop up involuntarily in your head, in your dreams and in reality, when the surrounding environment is somehow reminiscent of an old situation (the same smell, sound, phrase).
• Generalized anxiety disorder . The causes of tearfulness in patients with anxiety disorder are constant anxiety, fear, obsessive thoughts, sleep disorders. With a long course of this pathology, panic attacks with vegetative crises (dizziness, breathing disorders, heart palpitations) occur. Tearfulness becomes even more noticeable, especially in women.
• Children’s fears . A characteristic feature of childhood is the ease with which fears arise. They are formed under the influence of external situational influences, provoke the development of neurotic reactions, including crying. The cause of fear in infants and young children is the mother’s departure. The more often the mother is absent, the more tearful the child becomes. Similarly, tearfulness in kindergarten develops with fear of strangers.

Somatic diseases

Frequent causes of tearfulness are physical illnesses. Frequent crying may indicate changes in brain function, a pronounced hormonal imbalance. A more obvious connection is also possible: people cry when they experience pain, worry about irreversible deterioration of their health and appearance. Several somatic causes of tearfulness can be identified:

• Decreased quality of life. Severe illnesses are characterized by limited mobility, deterioration of well-being, and changes in the patient’s appearance. Patients are often forced to give up their usual physical activity and communication, performing professional duties, and eating their favorite foods. This condition may be accompanied by reactive depression – crying, experiencing a feeling of hopelessness, oppression, and uselessness.
• Pain syndrome. The feeling of frequent or constant pain is the reason for tearfulness of somatic patients, especially children. Physical suffering is manifested by a decrease in the patient’s activity, fixation on sensations coming from the body, depression and irritability.
• Organic brain damage.  An example of such a disorder is “weakness”, tearfulness of the elderly with Alzheimer’s disease , Parkinson’s disease, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis . Similar emotional disorders are possible with brain tumors , neuroinfections, after traumatic brain injuries .
• Endocrine diseases. Emotions are affected by such endocrine pathologies as hyperthyroidism , hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, Addison’s disease . Deficiency or excess of certain hormones causes sudden bursts of irritability, anger, cried. As a rule, patients notice them, but cannot explain the reason.

Survey

The causes of tearfulness are determined by specialists in various fields – psychiatrists , neurologists, endocrinologists. Primary diagnostics are carried out using clinical methods, including questioning the patient and his relatives, as well as observing behavior. In most cases, patients are able to critically assess their experiences, so they independently inform the doctor about frequent cryied, emotional sensitivity, mood swings and other symptoms. Talking with relatives helps to clarify the duration of the symptom, its causes. To establish the etiology of tearfulness, the following is used:

• Study of the emotional sphere of personality. Complex psychodiagnostic testing allows to determine the presence of depression, leading characterological traits and personality qualities that are the basis of tearfulness. Various questionnaires (MMMPI, Cattell questionnaire) and projective methods (color choice test, human drawing) are used.
• Laboratory tests of hormones. If a conversation with the patient does not reveal psychological reasons for tearfulness, but there are signs of an endocrine disease, a blood test for hormone levels is performed.
• Instrumental examination of the brain. If the patient complains of emotional disorders and there are signs of organic damage to the central nervous system, a neurological examination, CT and MRI of the brain , ultrasound of the brain vessels and other diagnostic procedures are performed. The results allow us to determine pathological changes in cerebral structures and tissues.

Treatment

The main therapy should be aimed at eliminating the cause of tearfulness – reducing the intensity of stress, normalizing the woman’s hormonal background, changing the parenting style. If it is impossible to influence the etiological factor or affecting the cause requires long-term labor-intensive treatment, symptomatic agents are used. Thanks to them, tearfulness decreases, the patient becomes more balanced and socially active, and the effectiveness of basic therapy increases. Symptomatic assistance for tearfulness includes breathing exercises, psychotherapy , medication, and changing the activity regimen.

Breathing exercises

At the physiological level, crying is manifested by a complex of reactions of the respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems. A individual remains bright to happily control alive. The easiest way to do this is with the help of breathing exercises. Which include slow and deep breathing deep inhalations through the nose with a noisy exhalation through the mouth fast and intense breathing. The most effective method is selected by the patient individually by trial and error. For women, the diaphragmatic breathing technique gives good results.

Behavioural psychotherapy

Behavioural techniques are aimed at switching attention, changing external activity that supports crying. The meekest workouts are seriatim, decisive activity, provoking another emotion. Specially created purposefulness of actions switches attention from sad and sorrowful thoughts to solving the problem. Options for distraction are looking for keys in a bag, making a shopping list. It can be difficult to provoke anger or joy on your own, but with training, such a skill is developed. It is necessary to remember a funny or angry situation and the people who participated in it. To reproduce the images in your thoughts in as much detail as possible.

Transactional analysis

Transactional analysis psychotherapy is a more complex way to combat tearfulness. According to this approach, a person’s personality is represented by three states – Adult, Parent and Child. Tearfulness is most characteristic of the latter, since crying stores conscious and subconscious childhood experience. During psychotherapy sessions, the patient is taught to remain in the Adult position, analyze situations and make decisions without allowing emotions to determine behavior. At the same time, attention shifts from experiences of the past and future to the state of “here and now”.

Drug therapy

Medications can be used to combat tearfulness . They are selected by a psychiatrist or psychotherapist , depending on the combination of symptoms. If tearfulness occurs together with anxiety and increased irritability, anxiolytics, sedatives, and herbal sedatives are prescribed. Antidepressants and tranquilizers are used for nervous exhaustion and signs of depression, and sleeping pills are used for sleep disorders.

Regularization of the daily routine

The basic cause of tearfulness is the instability of the processes of inhibition and excitation in the nervous system, therefore, in order to maintain emotional balance, it is necessary to adhere to the correct regime. Patients are advised to make a plan for the day and week, be sure to include walks, hobbies and sports that bring pleasure.