cry

My female owner comes across as a very emotional person (whether she really is or not depends on your relationship with her) – I heard that as a child, tears would well up in her eyes even when she is only quarrelling with someone. This propensity to tear is a great source of embarrassment for her, because her level of emotional distress does not necessarily match up to what people equate tears to mean and it makes the situation awkward. Objectively, she thinks she has over-reactive tear glands.

Her over-reactive tear glands have placed her in difficult situations before. For example, when her big boss talked to her about her work performance (or lack of it?!). Try as she might, she usually ends up crying in his office. She hates it, coz it makes her look weak and vulnerable, or even seemingly trying to get his sympathy.

Sometimes when she quarreled with her previous boyfriend, the tears would come. He used to get very irritated and would scold her (even more) for crying – “stop crying, when you see a problem, fix it, crying won’t help”.

Yet, over the past few months, when she was struggling with the vast changes in her life, my female owner found it difficult to let the tears out, even in the comfort of her own room, away from public eye.

Actually, why do humans cry? What is the function of tears? Why do sad people cry and why do happy people cry too? How does crying help to make people feel better? Can you feel better if you cannot cry (maybe no tear glands)?