In 2013, a new therapy was initiated in Japan that has been gaining followers after observing the beneficial results it has. We talk about Riu-Katsu , a group therapy, in which participants meet to watch sad movies and cry.

Crying can be much better than you imagined

But why cry in a group? According to one adherent of this therapy, “Riu-Katsu is not like crying alone in my room. I don’t exactly feel depressed or sad when I cry here, accompanied by other people.

We can give several answers to this statement. On the one hand, in a culture as rigid as the Japanese one, where the expression of feelings is not socially accepted, being able to cry in a group is a positive reinforcement and social acceptance to the expression of those feelings and, on the other hand, according to the experts, crying in a group removes the depressive component that people consider crying alone has. But, in addition, there is another factor to be taken into account, and that is the fact that most people do not know how to react to someone who cries and we tend to comfort them and ask them to stop crying, since, socially and culturally, we feel uncomfortable with certain emotional manifestations.

Related article: “8 Tears Seen Under a Microscope Reveal Different Emotions”

Riu-Katsu: Therapies where crying is positive

It may come as a surprise that there is a therapy based on crying, but there are scientific studies that confirm the benefits of tears for a person’s emotional well-being .

Crying is not always an expression of negative feelings. It is a reality that we cry to express sadness, grief and nostalgia but, also, we can cry out of anger, of pain and, in other cases, we cry to express happiness and joy.

Some benefits (physical and psychological) of tears

Tears prevent dry eyes, help fight bacteria that accumulate in the eyes and clean the visual channel, but at the same time, crying helps release negative emotions, eliminates tension and releases stress. Also, it allows us to know ourselves better, through crying we recognize our own weaknesses, needs and qualities. According to William Frey II, after crying the person sees more clearly because “there are no longer the pains that obstruct the intellect”.

Crying also produces physiological changes in the body, the tears themselves change their composition according to their function. According to researcher William Frey II, emotional tears contain more prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormones and leucine-encephaline, which are neuromodulating elements that act as a natural analgesic and help to calm , relax and release stress.

Crying has the capacity to decrease the levels of manganese in the body, which is related to states of anxiety, nervousness and aggression and, as if all the above were not enough, crying also allows the elimination of adrenaline and noradrenaline, which are secreted in excess in situations of stress or danger and can be harmful.

Crying, important for homeostasis

Lauren Bylsma, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, states that crying helps the body return to a state of homeostasis after being altered , that is, that the tears serve the function of returning the body to its basal level of functioning. For this reason, after crying, one often feels a sense of relief and relief, which improves the person’s general well-being.

Just as we socially accept laughter as an expression of feelings of joy or nervousness and value the feelings of well-being that follow , we must learn to accept crying, which is another manifestation of our emotions . To do this, we have to educate from childhood on the recognition and expression of feelings and not censure those who express them freely, because of the discomfort that this manifestation generates in us and, above all, to leave behind the myths associated with tears and assume that “crying does not make us weaker”, but on the contrary, crying strengthens us by helping us to get rid of the negative emotions we feel and return our calm.

And that “men do cry”, because as human beings with feelings they have the right to express them.