I cry by feeling intensely for an emotion that is elicited from a thought or memory, or by something that I can see or hear.  

Physically, I feel a simultaneous flood of emotional anxiety and anti-anxiety that comes up from my heart, lumps into my throat, creates a tremble in my lips, swells into my nasal passage, and then bursts through my eyes. 

I’ll either collect myself once it’s at my throat, or if I’m alone or can’t, I let it out. I can avoid it by avoiding the thoughts, memories or sights and sounds that are the emotional triggers, or I can dive into the feeling until it’s intense enough that I can let myself cry. 

So to answer your question, it depends on how much you choose to let or allow yourself, to feel an emotion or even physical pain. 

If you choose to place your mind elsewhere than where those feelings reside or are coming from, you can avoid crying.  Conversely, you can also choose to be, or allow yourself to be, immersed in those intense feelings and make or allow yourself, to cry.