Brendan Fraser’s Critics Choice Awards tears. Why do we cry.
Brendan Fraser delivered a teary speech after winning Best Actor for his role in The Whale at last night’s Critics’ Choice Awards.
“This movie, The Whale, is about love. It’s about redemption. It’s about finding the light in a dark place,” the actor, 54, said. “And I’m so lucky to have worked with an ensemble that is incredible.”
“I was in the wilderness and probably should have left the trail of breadcrumbs. But [Darren Aronofsky, the film’s director] found me, and like all the best directors you merely just showed me where I needed to be.”
The actor added emotionally: “To those like Charlie, who I played in this, if you in anyway struggle with obesity, if you find yourself in a very dark sea…
“…I want you to know that it’s good to have the strength to just go to the light, Good things will happen.”
Fraser isn’t the only celeb to show emotion in recent months. Other stars have been openly showing emotions, such as Keith Lemon, who has shed many tears of joy and sadness. cried during the filming of the final episode of Celebrity Juice Will Mellor who got emotional during his recent Strictly journey.
However, have you ever thought about why adults cry. Scientists have struggled to understand why grown-ups cry, despite being able to express their emotions in a fully communicative way for many years.
“It’s thought that tears cried in response to negative emotions, exist to signal our emotional distress to others,” explains Dr Jo Gee, women’s health psychotherapist at The Luna Hive. “This happens because our ’emotional’ tears contain more protein and are thicker than tears in response to illness or pain, therefore making them more visible to others.”
The basic concept of crying is that humans cry to express a range emotions such as sadness, grief, joy and frustration.
However, it is worth digging a bit deeper to discover the science behind a good sob.
This article will cover the psychology of tears in nine points.
What happens to our bodies when we cry? It is quite a lot. “When we cry, the diaphragm pulses, moving strongly up and down,” explains Claire Dale and Patricia Peyton, authors of Physical Intelligence.
“This stimulates our vagus nerve to trigger the release of acetylcholine, the chemical that brings us back into balance (homeostasis). Cortisol (anxiety) levels drop, serotonin (happiness), oxytocin (belonging) and dopamine (pleasure) levels rise, physical tension dissipates and we feel ‘relief’.”
Three types of tears are produced by the body. Elizabeth Hawkes is a consultant ophthalmic/oculoplastic surgeon at The. Cadogan Clinic.
“Basal tears, which are in our eyes all the time and lubricate and nourish the ocular surface,” she says. “Reflex tears are released in response to an irritant, such as smoke fumes or the fumes released when cutting an onion. Emotional tears are released in response to a strong emotion such as a sadness, joy or pain.”
We can’t control when we cry. That’s because the signal to produce emotional tears or ‘crying’ is under the control of our autonomic nervous system.
“This system is responsible for our functions not consciously controlled, such as heart rate,” explains Miss Hawkes.
“An emotional trigger stimulates the amygdala and hypothalamus (parts of the brain) which send a direct response to our lacrimal gland. This explains why we can’t control when we want to cry! Interestingly, humans are the only species thought to be able to able to produce emotional tears.”
Women cry more than men. William H Frey (biochemist) says that who studied the subject In the 1980s, women cried five times more than men.
Prof. Ad Vingerhoets (clinical psychologist) further researched Adult Crying. He found that women cry between 30-60 times per year. For women, crying bouts last between six and eight minutes while for men they can last up to four minutes.
Experts think this gender gap in crying could be due to prolactin, a hormone that is linked with the prompting and eliciting of tears. It is more concentrated among females. Men have larger tear ducts so that tears are less likely escaping their eyeslids.
Many Brits claim they never or rarely cry. Recent research revealed that the majority of British citizens don’t often cry, with nearly a quarter saying that they haven’t cried for over a year.
The studyLensstore also found that one in six UK adults never shed a tear, or can’t recall the last time.
Crying makes you feel better. The calming sensation we feel after a good blub? Experts think that this could be due to the neurotransmitter Leucine Enkephalin. It is released when we cry and acts as a natural painkiller.
“Tears can be a great tool for communication, as well as processing emotion,” explains Dr Gee. “After crying, our brain released endorphins called leucine-enkephalins, which soothe pain and bring about a sense of relief and calm. Psychologists find that crying in sessions, often brings about therapeutic benefits, and a rise in mood.”
Why do we cry? Sundeep Vaswani is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon and cculoplastic surgery at The Cadogan Clinic Tears can also result from a blockage of the tear-drainage system, known as the lacrimal apparatus.
“This can be an age-related problem but can sometimes even affect young children in the first year of life when the lacrimal apparatus is not yet fully developed.
“Rarely it can be caused by more serious problems such as tumours that cause compression of any part of the lacrimal apparatus. It is therefore important to seek advice if watering of your eyes is persistent or troublesome,” he adds.
What is crocodile tear? Crocodile tears is a term that originated from the belief in crocodiles crying when they eat their victims. It was also thought to be sinister.
“This gives rise to the social labelling of an insincere cry,” explains Miss Hawkes. “However, as described above, crocodiles probably do not produce emotional tears, but they are likely to be basal and reflex in origin.”
In medical practice, Miss Hawkes says the term ‘crocodile tear syndrome’ is used for something quite different.
“These are the results of facial nerve damage recovery (e.g. After a stroke. The motor nerve controlling facial expression and salivation is called the facial nerve.
“An abnormal wiring pattern between the facial nerves and the lacrimal gland can occur when it is damaged, sometimes during nerve recovery.”
“This malfunction causes an unusual symptom of excessive watering (simulating crying) triggered by eating.
“Crocodile tear syndrome can be treated with botulinum toxin injections directly to the lacrimal gland which reduces the production.”
We cry because we have to apologize. Natasha BrayA psychologist expert and coach in rapid transformation, Dr. Michael Sullivan says that we must look back at our childhoods in order to understand why we feel the need for sobs.
“When we are children and we cry, we may be told to be a ‘big girl’ or ‘big boy’ or to stop crying,” she explains.
Bray states that it is possible for us to be praised or treated well when we stop crying.
“We are taught from a young age that crying is not allowed, which means our young mind develops beliefs such as ‘it’s not safe to cry’ and ‘crying is weak.’
“We therefore associate crying with being ‘bad’ in some way and those understandings that we developed as a child still influence us as an adults, which is why we feel the need to apologise for crying.”