Tearfulness is the tendency of a person to cry often for little or no reason. It is manifested by increased tearfulness and emotional instability, sudden bouts of crying. Common associated symptoms are restlessness, anxiety, insomnia, depression, despondency. Tearfulness can be a character trait, a sign of a disease, or a situationally determined reaction. Diagnosis of the condition is carried out during the conversation and observation of the patient. Symptomatic therapy includes rhythmic breathing and distraction techniques, psychotherapy, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.
Crying is a psychophysiological reaction, which 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 eye muscles. By origin, it is a strong momentary mental experience that occurs in response to intense negative or positive stimuli. From a social point of view, crying is a way of expressing strong emotions. In childhood, physical pain is a common cause of tears. As they grow older, this reaction weakens, but may persist in women with increased emotional lability.
The term "tearfulness" refers to a character trait or temporary feature of the emotional-volitional sphere. It is manifested by emotional imbalance, tearfulness: a person cries every day, random memories, a tense conversation, an unpleasant intonation of the interlocutor, a scene from a movie become the cause of tears. Often, tearfulness reduces social activity, prevents the maintenance of close relationships, provokes irritability, misunderstanding on the part of others.
Tearfulness is more common in women and children than in men. This is due to biological reasons: women have more pronounced hormonal fluctuations (pregnancy, childbirth, menstrual cycle), children have a labile nervous system, so they easily get excited even to minor stimuli. Cultural factors also contribute to increased tearfulness in women compared to men. Sensitivity and tearfulness are recognized as feminine traits, men's tears are evaluated as a demonstration of weakness.
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, overwork or chronic stress. The causes of tearfulness are diverse, often tearfulness is provoked by external events, but has a physiological basis.
Some people are said to be whiny since childhood, while others are said to never cry. Tearfulness most often develops on the basis of a physiological predisposition, which consists of the functioning of the nervous system, the rate of production of certain hormones. Increased tearfulness is due to the following reasons:
The psychological causes of tearfulness include personality traits formed in the process of life, and external stressful psychotraumatic effects. Depending on this, people who are tearful in character are distinguished, and those who have excessive tearfulness due to the current difficult situation. The most obvious causes of tearfulness are:
Tearfulness and increased tearfulness develop with some mental disorders. All of them are accompanied by a decrease in the adaptive abilities of the body, fatigue, depression, instability of emotions. Patients cry often, do not always have an external reason for tears, do not control their condition. Tearfulness can be a symptom of the following disorders:
Frequent causes of tearfulness are physical illnesses. Frequent crying may indicate a change in brain function, a pronounced hormonal imbalance. A more obvious connection is not excluded: people cry when they are in pain, worry about the irreversible deterioration of their health and appearance. There are several somatic causes of tearfulness:
Determination of the causes of tearfulness is carried out by specialists in various fields - psychiatrists, neurologists, endocrinologists. Primary diagnosis is carried out by clinical methods, including a survey of the patient and his relatives, as well as observation of behavior. In most cases, patients are able to critically evaluate their experiences, so they themselves report frequent crying, emotional sensitivity, mood swings, and other symptoms to the doctor. A conversation with relatives helps to clarify the duration of the symptom, its causes. To establish the etiology of tearfulness, the following is used:
The main therapy should be aimed at eliminating the cause of tearfulness - reducing the intensity of stress, normalizing the hormonal background of a woman, changing the style of education. If it is impossible to influence the etiological factor or the impact on 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 help for tearfulness includes breathing exercises, psychotherapy, drug treatment, and changing the mode of activity.
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At the level of physiology, crying is manifested by a complex of reactions of the respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems. A person is able to voluntarily control breathing. To stop the beginning attack of crying, it is necessary to eliminate the feeling of spasm in the throat and holding the breath. The easiest way to do this is with breathing exercises, which include slow and deep breathing, deep breaths 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 method. In women, the technique of diaphragmatic breathing gives a good result.
Behavioral techniques are aimed at switching attention, changing the external activity that supports crying. The simplest exercises are running, purposeful activity, provoking another emotion (anger or joy). During running, a sequence of movements is established, muscles contract rhythmically, breathing intensifies - all these processes prevent crying.
A specially created purposefulness of actions switches attention from sad and sad thoughts to solving a problem. Distraction options - 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 as much as possible.
Transactional analysis psychotherapy is a more sophisticated way to deal with tearfulness. According to this direction, the personality of a person is represented by three states - Adult, Parent and Child. Tearfulness is most characteristic of the latter, since the conscious and subconscious experience of childhood is stored in crying. In psychotherapy sessions, the patient is taught to remain in the position of the Adult, analyze situations and make decisions, not 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".
To combat tearfulness, medications can be used. Their selection is carried out by a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, depending on the combination of symptoms. If tearfulness manifests itself along with anxiety and increased irritability, anxiolytics, sedatives, herbal sedatives are prescribed. For nervous exhaustion and signs of depression, antidepressants and tranquilizers are used, for sleep disorders - sleeping pills.
The underlying 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 regimen. The most important is a full sleep of at least 8 hours at night, regular exposure to fresh air, alternation of mental and physical labor. Patients are advised to make a plan for the day and for the week, be sure to include walking, hobbies and sports that bring pleasure.