I’m pretty sure I could cry on command if I started thinking about ‘Wicked’, Mia Frank, 27, from South London tells me.
A Nora Ephron film, a man over the age of 70 eating dinner alone, a mother duck leading her chicks across a pond — I’ll cry at pretty much anything.
I remember one particular moment, aged 14, when my parents treated my sister and I to a premium economy flight — to this day, the one and only time I’ve ever flown anything but coach.
Overcome with excitement, I began tearing up. After spotting the lofty leg room and cotton blanket I had to bite the inside of my mouth to hold back the emotion. Now, over a decade and a dozen Ryanair flights later, I think I’d become catatonic if I ever found a way into first class.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are of course also lots of people who never cry, who either have struggled to tap into that part of themselves, or who are totally comfortable expressing their emotions in different ways.
Metro chatted with both sides of floodgates to find out more.
I cried 168 times in 2025
A habitual crier herself, TikToker @smallex4ft11 tracked every single time she cried in 2025.
Totalling at an impressive 168 cries, the creator shared her stats with her followers.
Longest crying streak: four days. The longest stint without tears: 30 days. The most times she cried in one day: seven times. Total unique days with crying: 90 days.
That’s some serious data retrieval there.
A lot of users in the comment section clearly felt very seen by Alex’s ‘Sobbify Wrapped.’ One individual wrote: ‘I thought everyone cried every day.’ Another added: ‘Glad to know I’m not alone.
However, some people were totally shocked, noting how they only cry a few times a year, or not at at all.
Psychologist Madeleine Roantree offers up the opinion that the reason why people might have such strong reactions to Alex’s revelation is ‘more about social norms than about emotional health.’
‘We tend to assume that crying a lot means a person is unstable or over emotional and unable to cope, or that crying doesn’t reflect resilience and being in control, but these are too rigid.
‘Crying frequency varies hugely depending on personality and temperament, or how expressive someone was allowed to be when growing up.
‘Hormones and stress levels and amount of sleep can also contribute to the amount of crying, as well as cultural and gender expectations around whether one can and should cry.’
‘If I don’t cry I feel stuffed up and stressed’
Mia Frank, 27, is no stranger to a big cry sesh. The director and videographer based in London tells Metro: ‘I cry on average three times a week. TV shows, movies, music and my own thoughts make me cry.
‘I was listening to Imogen Heap’s Hide And Seek the other week, and just started bawling.’
But, Mia says that she ‘enjoys’ her tears.
‘It’s a great emotional release and I feel like I need to do it every so often or I feel stuffed up and stressed,’ she says.
Jess Winthrop, 26, from London, agrees, telling Metro she often feels her strongest following a cry. A ‘big crier [her] whole life’, Jess typically cries at least a few times a week.
Jess, an account manager, shared: ‘From childhood to now I’ve always really struggled to keep it in. Crying feels like a release most of the time.
‘Once I’ve finished crying I feel like I can move on and be stronger, especially if it’s about a negative situation.
While sad moments, such as ‘work stress and negative social interactions’, can see the floodgates open, she’s a tears-of-joy kind of person too.
‘I also cry out of happiness and love. Whenever my boyfriend does something cute or if I’ve accomplished something I’m proud of, it makes me well up.’
‘I felt everything, but the tears just didn’t come’
Not everyone is constantly reaching for a Kleenex though.
For example, Med Abdallah, 33, says he’s never really shed the tears.
He tells Metro: ‘Boys don’t cry, and if you did, you were seen as weak — especially around mates. So I learned to stop myself.
‘Over time, that turned into not crying at all, even when I feel things deeply.’
That doesn’t mean Med doesn’t feel emotions deeply though. ‘When my mum passed away, I felt everything, but the tears just didn’t come.
‘I remember thinking I should be crying, but everyone grieves differently, so why should it look one specific way?’
That being said, Med does say he sometimes wishes he could cry more.
‘A couple of months ago I was struggling badly with my mental health, and my partner somehow managed to get me to really open up. Once I did, the floodgates opened.
‘That moment proved it’s still there, it just takes a lot to unlock.’
He adds: ‘It feels like there’s another big one stored up somewhere, and when it finally happens, it’ll be a proper release.
Dry-eyed Ethan Holden, 26, also isn’t much of a crier — but wouldn’t mind his Audrey Hepburn moment, which he described as ‘a single tear being caught by a perfectly pointed silk scarf, tapping my under eye, no twitch of my lip, no stutter of my word.’
But it’s simply not the way Ethan processes emotion. He says months will go by where he won’t shed any tears, but his body often responds to emotion with things like headaches instead.
Is it unhealthy to never cry?
Madeleine emphasises that ‘it’s dangerous territory to make judgements on whether, and how much, crying is good and normal.’
She continues: ‘Research does not support the idea that you need to cry regularly or that you have to cry to process emotions properly. I don’t think tears are a tool that we use on purpose.
‘They are a response that emerge when emotions exceed our usual means of control or communication.
‘You could say crying has functions but it doesn’t have targets. It’s like asking what is the correct amount of laughing.’
GP Dr Donald Grant adds to this, noting that when it comes to someone’s health, ‘there is no set number of times people should cry,’ reiterating that the amount that someone cries ‘relates to personal circumstances or life experiences.’
Crying should occur naturally, Dr Grant notes. While it’s not good to suppress emotions, the type of hormone release our brains and nervous system experience during a cry only properly occur when it’s not forced.
People who cry regularly are not ‘weak’ or ‘dramatic’ Madeleine emphasises. Conversely, people who don’t cry aren’t ‘cold’ or ‘disconnected’.
Everyone will have a general idea of what their tears base line is. Spontaneously bursting into tears on a regular basis might be totally normal for you, but if it’s not, and you find yourself constantly in floods, it might be worth taking a second to think about what’s going on.
To cry or not to cry? The choice is yours.
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