TWIL #031 - Crying Is Literally a Chemical Detox
Emotional tears contain stress hormones and other biochemical byproducts that aren't present in reflex tears. Crying may be one of the body's mechanisms for excreting stress.
- #biology
- #psychology
- #health
Not all tears are the same. There are three physiologically distinct types:
- Basal tears - the constant thin film that keeps the eye lubricated
- Reflex tears - produced in response to irritants like smoke or onions
- Emotional tears - triggered by psychological states
The difference isn't just context. Biochemist William Frey's research in the 1980s found that emotional tears contain measurably different chemistry from the other two types - specifically, elevated concentrations of stress hormones including prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and leucine-enkephalin (a natural painkiller). These are hormones the body produces in elevated quantities during stress.
The implication is that emotional crying may be one mechanism by which the body excretes accumulated biochemical stress markers - a form of physical as well as emotional release. This is why people often describe feeling physically lighter after crying, not just emotionally.
There are important caveats. Frey's work has not been definitively replicated at scale, and the "crying as detox" framing is contested in the literature. It's clear that people generally feel better after crying; it's less clear whether this is because of the chemical excretion or because of other factors like the social response crying elicits, the forced breathing pattern involved, or simply the emotional release of acknowledging distress.
What's reasonably established: suppressing emotional tears appears to correlate with higher rates of stress-related illness. The body seems to have an intended use for the mechanism.