It all starts with a quivering lip. Or maybe you start to blink faster and faster to try and stop the tears from escaping. But before you can stop those tears from falling down your face, you are already crying.

You might be one of those people who cry at the drop of a hat. Not to mention birthdays, weddings, and those ASPCA commercials with the sad dogs locked up in cages looking for a home. There are also the reasons of deaths in families, relationship problems with either friends or boyfriends and girlfriends, or maybe you are just stressed out with the thought of school.

All of these are possibilities as to why we get upset.  Some people are more sensitive than others, such as women. Studies show that women cry 30 to 64 times a year, while men cry an average of 6 to 17 times a year.

Before you start feeling bad about yourself for letting the tears flow once in awhile, it is important to know that crying is actually healthy.

Men, women, children, teenagers, and babies all cry. We all do it. It’s a part of being human. Letting out all of that stress, fear, and sadness is good to do. Keeping everything bottled up is not healthy.

Crying relieves stress and stress is something nobody likes to have. For example, school stresses us all out. We wake up before sunrise, get on the bus or drive to school, sit in 80 minute classes from 7:30 in the morning till 2:05 in the afternoon, go to practice, eat dinner, and then stay up late for homework and studying only to repeat it all over again the next day. Can you say stressful?

Sometimes all of this catches up to us and becomes too much to handle. School has probably made everyone cry at least once in their lives. But if school does make you cry it’s a good thing because you are letting out all of that stress to calm you down and focus again. Having a stressed mind is not healthy for the thinking process and letting out your frustration will improve your mental health.

Toxins are removed from your body when you cry. Tears caused by emotion contain more toxins than tears caused by irritation. An example of emotional tears would be grieving a death in a family. On the other hand, tears caused by irritation are the ones you get if, for instance, you are chopping up an onion and you start to cry. Crying actually removes the toxins that we get due to stress. The release of the toxins is essentially a natural therapy or massage session but without the cost and hassle!

Have you ever heard the word manganese? Well, if you haven’t it is what contributes to your mood. Having a low level of manganese is very healthy, but having a high level can lead to anxiety, nervousness irritability, fatigue, aggression, and emotional disturbance. The act of crying can lower your manganese level and is actually a great benefit to your health and mood. As mentioned before, emotional tears contain 24 percent higher albumin protein concentration than irritation tears. So, you are putting yourself in a better mood by crying out those emotional tears more so those tears you get when you are chopping up that onion for your soup.

So the next time you cry, think about all its benefits. We are all human, we all get emotional at some point or another, we all have feelings, and sometimes we just need to let it out to make ourselves feel better. If you are feeling down about something there is always someone there for you that can help. Nobody likes to see somebody who is constantly sad. Crying is healthy but a smile is even healthier.