Why You Can't Stop Crying: Writing Out Tears You Can't Explain

On the train, or the moment you're alone at night, the tears suddenly won't stop. Nothing sad has happened, yet the tears pour out anyway — and because you can't name the reason, you feel bewildered, anxious that something inside you has broken.

Crying that won't stop is not a sign that you're weak. More often it's a signal that what you've been carrying has reached its limit. This article shows how to write out the causes behind unstoppable tears, sort them, and settle a little without blaming yourself.

The cause of unstoppable tears is never just one

Tears rarely arise from a single event. Long-accumulated fatigue and stress, feelings you've swallowed without voicing them, lack of sleep, physical condition, hormonal shifts — many such factors layer together and, at some small trigger, overflow all at once.

That's exactly why the state of "crying for no particular reason" is so common. When the cause is out of sight, the tears feel all the more unsettling. Simply knowing that "the cause is something that piled up, not one single thing" already lets a little of the tension drain away.

Write out the scene where the tears came

The true form of your tears feels larger than it is while it stays out of reach. So try writing out the concrete scene where the tears came. "When I remembered what my boss said." "When I felt there was no one I could lean on." "The night I came home exhausted." Take out each scene and what you felt in it, one at a time.

Written out and lined up, the common threads where tears tend to arise come into view. Are you pushing yourself too hard? Has the holding-back gone on too long? Is loneliness piling up? Just having the true form split into a few tendencies gives your vague anxiety something to hold onto, and eases the sense of being at the mercy of your tears.

Tears aren't to be stopped, but let out

When the tears come, most people panic and think, "I have to stop this quickly." But tears are a natural way of releasing feelings that have built up. Rather than damming them back, crying it out where you're free to leaves your heart more able to settle afterward.

After you've cried, writing down what was in your chest at that moment — somewhere no one else sees — lets the feelings behind the tears slowly become words. There's no need to wrap it up positively. Just letting out "that was hard," "I'm tired," makes it easier to understand yourself the next time the same tears rise.

When the tears keep coming, don't carry it alone

Tears are something many people shed, but when they won't stop for days and grow strong enough that you feel like disappearing or vanishing, please don't shoulder it alone. A professional such as a psychosomatic clinic, or a support line, can help. In Japan, the Yorisoi Hotline (0120-279-338) and Inochi no Denwa are available; elsewhere, look for a local crisis or mental-health line.

Writing "this is hard," just as it is, in a place no one else sees, can be a small step before asking for that help. There's no need to pin down the reason for the tears or to tidy it up. As you simply let it out, the outline of the tears gradually appears, and the weight you carry grows lighter.

Related: When Tears Come for No Reason. Writing Out a Nameless Sadness