Why do humans have a crying reflex against pain?
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First and foremost, research suggests that when you cry due to emotional or physical pain, your body does release endorphins to help relieve that distress. So crying is actually a handy way to soothe the pain.
But beyond that, it’s believed that crying plays an important social role – we are social creatures, after all, way back into pre-historic times. Crying signals to those around us that we’re vulnerable and we need help – humans have a strong psychological urge to help people who are in distress, and the sight of tears, the sound of crying, are handy ways to communicate that non-verbally.
Babies cry for everything negative. This tells others something bad is happening and that lets them be able to help them. Pain is one of those.
The real question, to which I don’t know the answer, is why does it cease for most things, but remains for emotional pain as an adult? I’m not totally sure, but for pain at least, you need to have your wits about you when you’re older, because you take care of yourself. You don’t want to break down crying if you get hurt by a predator. You need fight or flight response to be able to get yourself out of danger.
So, it makes sense that way, that you’d stop crying for physical pain. And perhaps the same reasoning applies for most thing, but there’s no evolutionary motivation behind removing it for emotions, and it can still serve a use, like if someone harms you emotionally, they will see it if you cry, and they will have the inclination to stop and help you, unless they’re evil.
Humans are social animals and like any other social animal when you are in trouble or in pain you make noise to get attention from other people nearby so they can help you.
You can cry different tears, tears of joy, or when your eye get irritated. However, the tears you cry when you’re in pain, wether it is physical or mental, contain stress hormones. It is a bodily reaction to handle the stress
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