Tears are very complex and act essentially to lubricate the eye.
When one of the tear's three main components becomes deficient the tears are abnormal, do not lubricate correctly and cause the eye to itch and burn or feel gritty when dry spots appear on the cornea. The copious tears that follow are still abnormal and do not coat, wet or lubricate the eye properly. One treatment of the dry eye is tear substitutes. There are many available and if one brand does not help, you might experiment to find a particular substitute tear that works for you. They should not hurt your eyes and should result in soothing of your symptoms.