How to Prevent Yourself From Crying

By Adam Sinicki

culled from:http://www.healthguidance.org

Having a good cry from time to time is good for us and a great form of catharsis for letting out emotions that might otherwise get bottled up and come out in unhealthy ways.
However, if you are someone who is overly prone to crying, this healthy behaviour can start to become a problem and you can find that it's actually quite embarrassing in certain situations. While on occasion crying can help you get what you want, often it will make you seem overly sensitive or make people lose respect for you. If you want to be taken seriously, then you really need to stop bursting into tears whenever you have a heated discussion.
For these reasons if you're a weepy type you should try to learn to get the crying back under wraps, and fortunately there are some tricks you can use to stop yourself next time you find yourself tearing up...
Pinch Yourself Slightly
One of the best ways to stop yourself from crying is to try and stop focussing on whatever it is that's making you upset. One way you can do this is to pinch yourself lightly, as that way you'll focus on the discomfort rather than on the emotion. Just don't pinch yourself too hard or you might cry from the pain instead...
Do Maths
Another tip is to try doing some quick sums in your head. This works the same way by distracting you from the upsetting thought or stimuli and really thinking about anything else in depth can have that effect.
Blink and Look Into the Light
To buy yourself time try blinking and looking into the light. This can help to prevent tears from forming, while looking up slightly will help to prevent them from rolling down your face.
Swallow
Swallowing can help for a number of reasons. Not only are your throat and eyes indirectly connected but the feeling can also be slightly cathartic helping you to deal with the emotion in a more subtle way. Better yet? Drink a glass of water. This will also help to rehydrate you if you have been crying.
Breathe
Likewise taking a deep breath can also help you to feel a little bit better, while more specifically you can try learning proper breathing techniques to calm yourself down the same way you might try to prevent an angry outburst.
Take a Time Out
If you find yourself getting teary during an argument or while you're telling someone about a stressful topic in your life, then it might be that you're getting yourself too worked up. In this case simply taking a little time out to stop and collect your thoughts can help a great deal. Even if it's just for a couple of seconds, try looking away, closing your eyes, then returning to the conversation fresh.
Smile
Our facial expressions reflect our mood, but likewise our mood can also be affected by our expressions which can trigger the release of various hormones. Simply smiling for instance can trigger the release of 'happiness hormones' and help you to feel a little better – hopefully stopping the tears from coming.
Failing that you can always just ask a close friend for a hug...