Wondering Why You Cry More Than Other People? Here Are 7 Potential Reasons

Crying gets a bad reputation for being uncomfortable, inconvenient, or even a sign that you're "too emotional." But research actually shows crying can be beneficial since it helps to relieve both physical and emotional pain, as well as releases endorphins and oxytocin, which can lower stress1.

According to licensed psychotherapist Babita Spinelli, L.P., there are a number of factors that can cause one person to cry more than the next, with higher degrees of empathy being a big one.

According to Spinelli, don't underestimate the impact your family conditioning can have on how much you cry. "What was modeled by family influences whether we cry more than others," she says, adding, "If crying was messaged as shameful or unnecessary, it influences individuals to hold back tears and resist expressing the emotions through tears."

If you're not usually someone who cries a lot but you find you're crying more lately, it's possible you're burnt out, exhausted, or under a lot of stress. We already know that not getting enough sleep can affect emotional processing2, making it more difficult to regulate your emotions as they arise.

Similar to the conditioned and learned factors around crying that were modeled by your family, which we would consider "nurture," there's a "nature" or genetic component as well, according to Spinelli.

As we learn more about the nervous system and the impact of trauma, the idea that we can "hold on" to trauma in the body is becoming more widely accepted.

And according to Spinelli, when crying comes out of nowhere, "It can represent unprocessed emotions that we have been feeling but dissociating from or pushing aside."

At the risk of making a sweeping statement around gender roles, the fact is, women cry more than men. How much of that is a combination of nature and nurture isn't precisely understood, but we do know that the female brain is typically wired toward higher degrees of empathy, as well as stress.

As clinical neuroscientist and psychiatrist Daniel Amen, M.D., previously wrote for mindbodygreen, empathy allows women to be loving and nurturing—but it can also be extremely overwhelming when unchecked.

"Higher activity in the emotional centers of the brain is also associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety," Amen adds, calling out a study5 in the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, which shows that women are nearly twice as likely as men to experience depression, along with research6 that suggests a similar increased risk for anxiety.

According to Spinelli, if you feel like you're crying excessively and/or uncontrollably, that's when you might want to dig deeper into the possibility of a mental health issue arising. "It may be necessary to assess if there is depression or an unregulated state that needs to be addressed," she explains.

Indeed, conditions like depression and anxiety are linked with difficulty regulating emotions7, which can definitely result in uncontrollable and frequent crying. In this case, reach out to a mental health professional ASAP.