30/04/2026
When the body is under stress, cortisol floods the system as part of the threat response — priming you to fight, flee, or freeze.
Crying is one of the body’s most elegant discharge mechanisms: emotional tears have been found to contain stress hormones and other metabolic byproducts, suggesting that weeping is literally a form of biochemical release.
When that release doesn’t happen — whether through suppression, emotional shutdown, or a nervous system too dysregulated to access it — that cortisol load doesn’t simply disappear. It lingers in the body, keeping the HPA axis activated and the system stuck in a low-grade state of physiological alertness.
Over time, chronically elevated or dysregulated cortisol interferes with immune function, disrupts sleep architecture, suppresses digestion, and — critically for women — competes with s*x hormones through the pregnenolone steal pathway, where the body prioritises cortisol production at the expense of progesterone and oestrogen. The inability to cry, or the habitual suppression of it, isn’t emotional weakness or strength — it’s a nervous system pattern, often rooted in early attachment experiences where emotional expression felt unsafe.
If you would like support to rewire this pattern and get back on track contact me via www.laurenbond.co.uk
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