Question #150 Pain
What is worse pain? Emotional or physical pain?
Feel free to discuss a painful experience that you have had either way.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
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What is worse pain? Emotional or physical pain?
Feel free to discuss a painful experience that you have had either way.
17 comments:
You will always rebound from physical pain much faster than emotional. Especially if some emo pain never really go away as much as that time and distractions have helped ease it.
That being said, I have had painful injuries that took much longer than heal than times like when my ego was momentarily hurt when a bum told me I was "overweight in his book".
I agree with Dave, especially because I have had one bum tell me that I 'sure do look like a mean one' and another call me 'a fat ass' recently; so I can sympathize.
And since I happen to get physically hurt more often than emotionally, I am a big wuss over emotional pain and am not sure if I EVER get over some of it.
Does this make me Emo? yikes.
I'm gonna expand a little bit cause I can and i feel like it.
Almost two years ago, I lost my Father to health complications. He had minor health problems all my life growing up, but after the call that "you all need to come out here to see your father immediately" we knew it wasn't a normal trip of his into see a doctor.
I am thankful for that moment I got to sit next to my father in his hospital bed, hold his hand, and talk to him even though he was not conscious enough to respond to me. Although it was one of the hardest moments to deal with, it gave me a sense of peace with him. My dad never fully woke up and he died 1 week after I came back to SF.
As far as this relates to pain, it has to do with the fact there are so many things I wish I could had told him, so many things I wish I would have said before it was too late. At the end of the day, this is something many people have gone through and I know my situation isnt exclusive, but it still leaves a gapping hole inside you and you are forever changed going through something like that. Im not sure if pain like that ever really goes away. You live, learn, and move on.
I would say emotional pain but when I was in high school my friend Peter punched me in the chest really hard. I deserved it, I was relentlesly messing with him. He his me and it hurt and then for years afterwards it hurt whenever I laughed, especially if I laughed at Peter. I mean it really hurt, like he broke my chest plate or something.
Maybe it was the mix of physical pain and the pain of the guilt I felt, I'm not sure. Maybe the answer is that the worst pain is a combination of the two.
I think emotional pain will always be worse. And I should know, I've had countless ER visits. Emo hurt is always worse.
That is why there are so many whiny emo songs on the radio. You never hear songs about having to get stitches in your face.
Emo, totally.
A cut you can watch heal and check on the progress. You can see the end coming and look forward to it. But emotional pain is invisible, you can't see how it's getting better. There is no scab that falls and scar that fades to check in with. There's just the saddness, every day.
This is a weird one for me. I think I'm pretty resistant to physical pain. I'm also very adept at repressing emotional pain. So I almost feel like I'm unqualified to answer.
But the more I think about it, I lean towards emotional, and here's why:
I know that some part of me understands very well what it means to be hurt, both physically and emotionally; and I'm much more likely to put myself in the path of physical pain than in the path of emotional pain.
Emotional pain is worse I think because we kind of have to repress it. It's how our society works. It's totally cool to be in a room full of strangers and say, "Man, I cut my finger open." And people will be like, "Dude, that sucks. Do you need a bandaid? Hey, somebody get the first aid kit." But if you walked in and said, "Man, I feel like there's a hole in my soul." people would probably laugh nervously and then move away from you as quickly as possible. Because there's no first aid kit for that and no one knows how to fix you.
Definitely emotional pain. Losing people you love changes you and you are never the same again. Like Dave said, so much goes unsaid. That regret is really painful to deal with. 2005 was the worst year of my life and I never thought I would live through it. I lost my mother, my grandmother and even my dog at Christmas to top it all off. My dad couldn't deal and left the country, so in a sense I felt like I lost my father as well. I am a different person because of it and will never be the same. I even feel colder as a person. Perhaps it's bitterness? I don't know.
That said, I have never been through any serious physical pain in my whole life. I am a huge wuss and have written off ever getting knocked up because I cannot comprehend that sort of physical pain. Plus, it's gross. I think the worst physical pain I've ever dealt with is when I got a paper cut under my fingernail while digging through my purse. Don't laugh, there were tears involved! I consider myself really lucky on the physical pain aspect, but the emotional balances it out I guess. If I had the choice I would have much rather broken my leg 10 times.
Emotional pain is the worst...if you don't take time to heal the emo (and most people don't) it never goes away and can haunt you for the rest of your life, while a physical pain will heal most of the time with or without you!
Breaking my leg fucking blew. My heart is invincible.
Ever break a rib? Sweet fucking jesus that is some exquisite pain. Physical pain. Also, I have no soul.
I've got just one word:
Sigmoidoscopy. Holy fuck.
And I agree with Jake when he wrote this, "I know that some part of me understands very well what it means to be hurt, both physically and emotionally; and I'm much more likely to put myself in the path of physical pain than in the path of emotional pain."
And to think that I actually made the appointment for that self inflicted torture.
i would have to say emotional because it seems to take longer to dissolve.
Man, that's tough. First I wanted to say emotional, but I guess it's physical. Just think about someone drilling a hole into a tooth, or putting glue into your eye and setting it on fire!! I'd rather break up with my girl!!
you're strong phoebes. emotional, the burning sensation in your chest and the swelling of tears from your eyes hurts a bunch.
I'm going to have to agree with most and say emotional, for all of the reasons already stated.
As for physical, I would say that I have a pretty high pain tolerance when I want to, but I had a kidney stone almost a half inch in size lodged in the tube that goes between your kidney and bladder. That thing kicked my ass.
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