How to Stop Crying When You Are Depressed

643 Shares

Coping skills are needed when life gets a bit much. Learn how to stop crying when depressed.

How to Stop Crying When You are Depressed

I’m no stranger to crying when depressed. If I had a dollar for how many times I’ve cried due to being depressed… Well, let’s just say I would be very rich.

I’m pretty skilled at crying at all times of the day, and at night! I can cry anywhere! I’ve cried at school, at work, at restaurants, events, parties, you name it.

So, trust me when I say I’m a veteran and can give you the right tips to teach you to learn how to stop crying when you are depressed.

Also Read from here: How to Pretend You’re Not Upset

LEARNING TO STOP CRYING WHEN DEPRESSED REQUIRES SOME WORK. YOU NEED TO GO DIGGING FOR YOUR TRIGGERS, AND YOU NEED TO START PRACTISING SOME EMOTIONAL STRENGTH EXERCISES.

The first thing that you need to know when learning how to stop crying when you’re depressed is that the crying always has a source. I call these triggers. I don’t normally start crying out of the blue—unless of course I’ve on my period and hormonal!

It’s always something—a thought, a person, or a conversation—that causes crying. It’s up to you to collect data on what is making you cry. When you start keeping track, you will begin to notice that it’s almost always the same thing that’s making you cry.

Sometimes you may not think it’s always the same thing, but in my experience it’s all related. You could be crying due to different circumstances, but these circumstances are all pointing to one trigger.

Here are some examples of triggers that are causing you to cry when depressed:

Trauma
Loss
Being misunderstood
Being disrespected
Being controlled
Lack of freedom
Lack of respect
Lack of peace
Lack of acceptance
Lack of attention
Feeling unsafe
Losing balance in life
Not feeling included
Things going wrong

Of course, I haven’t included every single trigger out there. however, I assure you that when you pinpoint what is making you cry when depressed, you begin to understand yourself better because things will make sense.

Usually, when I discover patterns in my life, I feel pretty calmed down because it takes the confusion and lack of clarity away from my behaviors and habits.

Also, remember that depression is real and can make you cry real bad. And if you feel you might harm yourself, please seek help. Know that I love and appreciate you, and I don’t even know you! Here is a link to hotlines that you might need: REMEMBER THAT I LOVE YOU.

Also Read from here: What to Do When You Feel Depressed

With that said, I’d like to share some activities you can do when you feel a cry coming.

Activities to Stop Crying:

Get out of bed
Go on a walk
Cook
Paint
Journal
Watch feel good movies
Call your friends
Take a soothing shower or bath
Moisturize
Exercise

Also Read from here: How to Pretend Everything Is Okay

It’s Alright to Cry!

I truly appreciate that there are times when you need to suppress your negative thoughts from going down a whirlpool of more negativity.

However, I also know that letting out a good cry once in a while is cathartic. It’s almost toxic to stop yourself from crying. I know guys who want to cry but it’s just so repressed in them that they just… can’t.

Here are the benefits of crying:

You release happiness hormones called endorphins!
You feel calm afterwards
You can finally sleep!
It’s self-soothing to cry

Sometimes all I need is a good cry. There are times when I know that my need to cry is wrong and rooted in negative beliefs and cognitive dysfunctions. Sometimes all I need is a good cry. My body just wants to let things out, and I let myself. That’s some good self-care right there.

Also Read from here: Self Care Tips for When You Feel Overwhelmed

How to Stop Crying When You’re Depressed

Here are the how’s that you need right now. The how’s are going to be the mindsets, the reasonings and the habits you need to learn so that you can learn to stop crying when depressed. So, here are 6 tips to help you to learn how to stop crying when you’re depressed.

6 Tools to Stop Crying When You’re Depressed

Cognitive Restructuring

The most important tool to help you to stop crying when depressed is: Cognitive Restructuring

When you are depressed and on the verge of a mental breakdown, your negative and toxic thoughts are at an all time high. I know what it’s like when all your emotions have pooled up and all it needs is one tiny trigger to let go of the dam. Crying is probably inevitable at this point. However, if you learn cognitive restructuring, you will learn to control yourself from crying.

Cognitive restructuring refers to identifying and using rational thinking to combat negative thoughts, or cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are usually negative and toxic thoughts that cause you to unwittingly dig deeper holes for yourself. Examples of cognitive distortions include; all or nothing thinking, catastrophizing, fortune telling, mental filtering, and many others.

COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTIONS ARE THOUGHTS THAT MAKE YOU TO EXAGGERATE WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON. HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF A COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION: FORTUNE TELLING. IT SOUNDS FAR-FETCHED, RIGHT? NOTHING LIKE WHAT YOU ARE SKILLED IN. THAT’S THE THING. WE NEED TO FIX THESE THOUGHTS THAT HAVE US THINKING THAT WE KNOW WHAT SOMEONE IS THINKING IN THEIR HEAD (FORTUNE TELLING).

Cognitive restructuring has helped me so vastly in my journey towards better mental health. I now know how to identify, recognize, and banish cognitive distortions. You can do this by recognizing when your mind is going into negative-thought overdrive. Then, combat negative thoughts with positive thinking. I have found that it makes no sense to think up the wildest negative thought; instead, I use my mind to think up the wildest positive thought!

It can take a while to get into the groove of thought-restructuring, but once you do, you’ll be so happy. I know I am. I can single handedly overpower a mental breakdown. When I first managed to do it, I almost cried in relief. That’s because I had been in a vicious cycle of crying and being hurt all the time.

If you can’t think positive at first, don’t worry—I couldn’t do it either. I prided myself in being a seasoned pessimistic. Today, I have so much fun controlling my crying sessions.

Distract yourself

When you feel depressed and want to cry, don’t continue lying in bed and prepare for the festive waterworks! Get out and sit somewhere else. If like me, you enjoy crying in the shower, limit your shower time. Get away and do something else.

Crying might be a habit that you need to break, like any other bad habit. Replace crying with other activities. My favorite activities include; painting, writing, watching videos, skin care, listening to music, yoga, working out, reading, and many others. It can be hard at first—maybe you’ll even feel that it’s useless, but if you keep going, you will benefit from distracting yourself.

Also Read from here: How to Develop Good Habits

Know your triggers and stay away

Like any bad habit or addiction, you need to learn your triggers and stay away from them. After learning what triggered me, I started staying away from such content.

Sometimes it can be inevitable to get exposed to triggers but a lot of the time you can save stress by controlling your exposure to triggers. The more you consciously stay away from triggers, the easier it becomes. In fact, you will soon begin to become less affected by your triggers and less prone to start crying when you are depressed.

Learn to stay away from triggers by:

Don’t watch triggering content
Don’t read triggering content
Stay away from people who trigger you
Manage your emotions
Eating right
Get enough exercise

Also Read from here: Top 10 Stress Reducing Habits

Talk to someone

How to Stop Crying When You’re Depressed? Get that external help that you need.

Crying makes you feel alone. I’ve had some pretty huge meltdowns and called a friend to help me out. You’d be surprised how helpful and caring people can be. They can help you see something in your situation that you can’t.

They can be that support that you need. A shoulder to cry on. Don’t worry about ugly crying and getting snot on them. Mental health is just as important as physical health. If you were sick, you would want support and care in addition to medical help. That’s why you should lean on others during such trying times.

Talking to friends and family is important to help you to stop crying when you’re depressed.

Do something to make you feel better

Before, when I would get triggered, I would kind of just go with the flow of events. Trigger > Emotional disarray > Mental Breakdown > Crying.

I didn’t really think that it was good for me to be a little more positive and deal with my emotions. I didn’t actually know that I didn’t have to feel bad and cry! I just thought that was the norm.

Like all norms, we kind of get used to them—they are just the way things are. And more often than not, norms give us that consistency in life. We like consistency. We want it to keep going.

AT FIRST, IT WAS HARD FOR ME TO ACTIVELY SEEK TO LET GO OF MY TRIGGERS. I DARE SAY I MIGHT HAVE FOUND PLEASURE FROM INDULGING IN MY TRIGGERS. BUT NOW, I KNOW THAT I NEED TO FIGHT NEGATIVITY IN MY LIFE.

Before I could manage my consistent mental breakdowns, I had to ask myself if I actually wanted to feel better. As I studied my behaviors, I realized that I was being a victim and kind of enjoyed the state of suffering. Morbid, I know. Today, I know that I want to feel good in my life. I don’t want to cry and feel hurt. I want to get better and be an emotionally strong person.

That said, do something that you know will make you feel good. You can watch a movie or listen to a nice song. Take a walk, or go to a café. Stay at home and paint, or read a book. Do some journaling. Take a shower and moisturize. Make your skin feel good. Why cry and feel terrible if you can do something nice to make you happy?

Actively search out new activities to make you feel good. You might have tried out, say gardening—but maybe you need to check it out again. It might be the perfect thing to help you to regulate your emotions enough to stop crying when you’re depressed!

Focus on self growth

Finally on how to stop crying when you are depressed: Focus on self growth!

I totally attribute my emotional healing journey to actively pursuing personal development and self growth.

Two years ago, I didn’t even know that I had to be continually developing myself every day. I didn’t do anything to actively try to reach my potential as a human being. I just sort of drifted vaguely in the direction of my goals.

However, when I started seriously indulging in reading self help books, I began to realize that I had to work on myself—to see how far I could go while trying to be the best me I could be. That pretty much offset my journey to taming my anger issues, stop being a victim and just generally be a being of positivity and light.

These days, I work towards being as positive as I can get. I do my best to banish negative thoughts using positive affirmations. I strive to be bigger and better than I was the day before.

Also Read from here: How Affirmations Saved My Life

I don’t want to cry when I run into any triggers in my life. I want to figure it out. I want to soothe myself. I want to show up for myself.

You can Stop the Crying and the Tears!

Life can be insane when you cry too much from being depressed. Crying every night like clockwork is not ideal. There are some things you can do to stop those tears and the sadness. Sometimes it’s about dealing with those painful emotions. Other times, simply coping is enough.

Coping. That’s one thing I never really used to do until I learnt what it was all about. Coping is when you choose to make yourself feel better by self-soothing or self-care. This is where you choose to push away the negativity and surround yourself with positivity and good vibes.

I hope you enjoyed this post on how to stop crying when you’re depressed. Scroll down below to the comments and share with me your coping strategies to stop crying when depressed.

Additional Helpful Posts:

My Top 5 Mental Health Books:

Pin643