Rita Balogun’s schedule is jam-packed with work commitments, social outings — and a bi-monthly sob session.
“If I don’t have a good cry at least every two weeks, minimum, it just feels like all my emotions are just like locked in and I just need to release it so I can start thinking clearly again,” Balogun, a 32-year-old actor and content creator said.
When she’s ready to let the tears flow, the Londoner puts on a tear-jerker TV show — typically “Grey’s Anatomy” or “This Is Us” — and makes a point of feeling her feelings.
“I will look at my calendar and I think ‘I’m not doing anything [else] today,’” she said. “I just need to like, release [my emotions] so I can start thinking clearly again.”
Crying, of all things, is trendy with Gen Zers and young millennials. In July, Balogun posted a TikTok about her scheduled crying and got over 57,000 views. The hashtag #AlwaysBeCrying has 4.1 million views on the platform, while just #Crying clocks in at over 12 billion. Meanwhile, “sad girl chic” makeup — where cosmetics are used to give the impression that you’ve been elegantly weeping like a movie heroine — is one of the season’s buzziest beauty looks.
Maya Dougherty isn’t one to schedule her cries, but the 24-year-old does carefully track them and present her data in PowerPoint presentations that have garnered millions of views.
“I’m pretty emotional and cry a lot over sad things, big things, small things and silly things,” she said. She’s found that she cries 17 or 18 times a month, for reasons such as a stressful day at work — though she recently left a job as a teacher — to watching emotional videos of weddings or births. The mood might strike her in random moments.
“Sometimes I’m looking for a certain shirt in my closet and I’m too warm [and] I’m crying like as if it’s the end of the world, but it’s really not,” she said with a laugh. “I just need to let it out to be able to get all the pent up feelings out of my body and then just move on.”
The Chicagoan is always looking to understand her crying more.
“I am gonna break down like astrological seasons to see if there’s any correlation,” she told The Post. “[According to my data] I still cry about the same amount [month-to month] but let’s see.”
While it might sound like quite a lot of time and energy devoted to tears, Thea Gallagher, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health, says these practices can be healthy.
Taking a moment to get in touch with your emotions in this manner can be beneficial in the same ways that talking to a therapist or close friend are.
“They are kind of part and parcel of the same whole,” Gallagher told The Post.
But, if you find that crying is interfering in your day-to-day activities, or you’re doing so uncontrollably, it’s time to get professional help.
“If you’re staying home alone and crying all the time, this can be problematic,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just a symptom of maybe a larger problem that’s ongoing [and] that needs to be addressed.”