Poll: Physical or Emotional Pain?

[Danny Ocean]

I suppose what it all boils down to is my own personal inability to grasp WHAT kind of logic could lead someone to believe "Dying is obviously the best option for me"...

I can somewhat understand suicide brought on from physical pain, IE "This pain is excruciating, I want it to stop at any cost".
But emotional pain? something thats very existence can be questioned?

One would question emotional pain by saying it is only in the mind, but that's easily reflected back at physical pain, which is also only in the mind technically. If there were no brains, there would be no pain or emotion.

When you understand that emotional pain literally hurts the same way physical pain does (It lights up the same parts of the brain and leads to the same physical responses like running, lashing out physically, crying, screaming, and so on), it's easy to get why people can't stand it. The problem with emotional pain is that it often lasts for long periods of time, there are no medicines for it, and sometimes never goes away. Often the best cure for it is externalising it and letting other people persuade you out of it (talk about it), but the problem with that is that the other person is more often than not clueless about it.

A common cause of emotional pain is an existential sense of pointlessness. The source of that pain will never go away, because there is no objective point to life. The only way to escape that pain is to think your way out of it (thinking being notoriously hard to do when you're racked with emotions), or just end it by killing yourself. Unfortunately not everyone has the mental condition to take the former option. It's not a case of intelligence alone. People aren't 'bad' or 'stupid' or 'inferior' because they commit suicide. It's mostly circumstance.

For example: living in modern society makes many depressed. In a social environment where your worth is determined by what you own, yet you are unable to better your material standing or leave, you are left with a continuous sense of inferiority. This wears you down until your youthful expectations of life are snuffed out completely and you simply don't see the point of living any more if you can't achieve your dreams. You lose the will do live and either drift into a kind of dull limbo until you die naturally, or something changes, or you kill yourself because, really, what's the point in enduring the pain in the hope that something will change when nothing ever really changes?

Understanding people like that requires empathy, that's all. You'll get it eventually I'm sure. Most people do.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Well, I've experienced a minor form of depression, and that honestly crippled me worse than anything for a few weeks, so I'd say in a few cases emotional.

Physical pain is fine to deal with if you take it on with a positive outlook.

But then again... being burned alive would probably suck. So yeah... I change my answer.

 

[hensethe1]

I happen to enjoy physical pain so emotional is worse.

lol sup rambo

OT: Definitely emotional

 

[Durgiun]

http://cdn1.staztic.com/screenshots/jackal-tapes-far-cry-2-12-2.jpg
''You can't break a man the way you break a dog or a horse. The harder you beat a man, the taller he stands. To break a man's will, to break his spirit you have to break his mind.''

 

[thahat]

Physical pain, obviously. The worst kind of emotional pain has nothing on having your bones crushed.

disagreeing here, had my legbones shatterd by a scooter crash > you dont feel afacking thing til they try to put the bloody things back or you try to stand on em XD.

operation: painless ( since you go nighty night ) the only painfull things:
removal of a drain, and removeal of stiches, the one hurts like FUCK for 10 seconds. stiches for 3 minutes if you have a quick docter.

emotional pain can be crushing for months.

so idunno man. dont think its all one way as you paint it

 

[Baldry]

I'm going to go with emotional pain. I've felt my fair share of both and if I had to choose between going through what I went through emotionally some time ago or the time I ripped open my knee and arm in a quad biking accident I'd go with the physical because even thinking about what happened makes me sad and still hurts me today much more than some scars.

 

[Bran1470]

physical pain heals emotional doesn't. i guess you can figure out which ones worse

 

[___________________]

Emotional pain is worse for me. I can live with physical scars better.

 

[SoulSalmon]

One would question emotional pain by saying it is only in the mind, but that's easily reflected back at physical pain, which is also only in the mind technically. If there were no brains, there would be no pain or emotion.

Yes but emotional pain is EXCLUSIVELY in the mind, physical harm is backed up by actual injury and nerve endings releasing chemicals that specialize in making you suffer.

Emotional pain... well it's pretty much just 'negative' emotions like sadness from what I can tell, and I can't imagine why people let themselves get so worked up about it.

A common cause of emotional pain is an existential sense of pointlessness.

And you lost me...
Feeling actual pain because life is pointless?
Since when does anything ever have a neatly defined 'point' to it anyway?

People aren't 'bad' or 'stupid' or 'inferior' because they commit suicide. It's mostly circumstance.

Just in case I made it sound like PEOPLE who commit suicide are stupid, let me clarify that I do not.
The ACTION is what I find stupid

For example: living in modern society makes many depressed. In a social environment where your worth is determined by what you own, yet you are unable to better your material standing or leave, you are left with a continuous sense of inferiority. This wears you down until your youthful expectations of life are snuffed out completely and you simply don't see the point of living any more if you can't achieve your dreams. You lose the will do live and either drift into a kind of dull limbo until you die naturally, or something changes, or you kill yourself because, really, what's the point in enduring the pain in the hope that something will change when nothing ever really changes?

Since we already clarified that I'm a prick:
First world problems much?

Understanding people like that requires empathy, that's all. You'll get it eventually I'm sure. Most people do.

I can't tell what you mean here because no publication can decide on what Sympathy and Empathy are, I'm going to assume by "Empathy" you're referring to the act of being able to feel what the other person is going through to some extent.
And I do lack that...
I'll have to see if I can find out how this works at another time, maybe something will change.


I think my main issue with not getting it is the examples, all things that millions of people go through every day. The end comparison always looks like this:

Look at this way:would you rather lose your high school sweet heart or have your knee cap pulverized?

Rarely does anyone experience anything that should be traumatic enough to be emotionally scarring, short of having every person you've ever loved being skinned and in immense pain right in front of your eyes, and then learning that it's your fault, you shouldn't HAVE any emotional pain.
And in the end you'd be experiencing the emotional pain BECAUSE of physical pain anyway, just not your own.

 

[rosac]

Well seeing as emotional pain over a long period of time has now made it very difficult to know how to correctly portray emotions or how to deal with certain situations, thus screwing over my ability to talk about certain topics with people who I am close to, I would go with emotional pain. I was made to feel guilty for everything me or my sister did when we were kids, constantly told I was a disapointment and a disgrace to my family and generally beaten down. Now I got told not to be so soft and to stop apologising, as I now expect to be blamed for everything, even if I wasnt involved.

Compared to that, having my chin split open, the back of my arms cut with razors/blunt penknives and hitting my head on a metal surface after an 8 foot drop is nothing.

 

[hooksashands]

Emotional stress can trigger physical pain and vice versa. I've been healthy most of my life, only broken 2 different bones, can count the number of times I've gotten food poisoning or a cold on just one hand, and I can comfortably relive these memories. The mental stuff like doing bad on a final, being demoted or getting cheated on/dumped leaves me feeling more hurt than I want to admit.

 

[DanielDeFig]

Depends.

Emotional pain is more difficult to get over (When physical pain is over, it's over. Unless it's at a level to cause psychological trauma)

Physical pain is far more painful and "physical" (duh).

EDIT:
I'd say physical pain is worse, as there is always something you can do to get over emotional pain and feel happy again.
There isn't much you can do to "get over" physical pain, except get yourself out of whatever situation is causing that pain.

 

[DanielDeFig]

physical pain heals emotional doesn't. i guess you can figure out which ones worse

Really? How does one "heal" a crushed arm?

Compare that to being betrayed, which is easily solved by not associating with those ppl, and getting new companions.

(I'm not picking on you, I was just on a roll from my initial post)

 

[RanD00M]

I happen to enjoy physical pain so emotional is worse.

Pretty much this. After all the times I have accidentally cut myself, I don't mind it anymore, and stuff like getting punched and slapped can sometimes be enjoyable.
So I think you can guess which one is worse.

 

[Syntax Error]

Physical pain is more tolerable... Emotional pain will leave you scarred worse... Your own mind can lead you to ruin as it stands, what more if it gets beaten and battered?

 

[babinro]

Physical pain due to my history of it.

Things like chronic back pain, knee pain or constant headaches far exceed the ups and downs that come with being heartbroken, experiencing loss of family or sensing fear.

However, I can see why most people would consider emotional pain worse and rightly so.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Rarely does anyone experience anything that should be traumatic enough to be emotionally scarring, short of having every person you've ever loved being skinned and in immense pain right in front of your eyes, and then learning that it's your fault, you shouldn't HAVE any emotional pain.
And in the end you'd be experiencing the emotional pain BECAUSE of physical pain anyway, just not your own.

That bolded bit... just what do you mean by that??

Because, I'm a psychologically damaged person by any stretch of the imagination, and yet I find myself in the unenviable position be being unable to express any anger or hatred towards a thing/organisation/person for any of it. There is literally nothing or no-one I can pass blame to for my circumstances. I can blame myself for feeling shit and having nightmares but is that going make anything better? I find it difficult at the best of times to justify my existence and yet I persist for the sake of my family, the hope that someone out there might understand my pain and be able to cry with me and that before I die, I might be able to feel even just a moment of true happiness.

You fail to understand that the strength of will of the human mind varies from person to person. Perhaps I'm a complete wuss because I saw someone close to me killed no more than two metres in front of me, and I'm yet to properly recover from it. Perhaps I'm a complete wuss because I broke down in tears when I found out my child never drew breath. When you lose something that means more to you than your very self, get back to me.

... Excuse me...

 

[Kaymish]

physical i am such a cold hearted ***** that emotional pain just bounces right off and on top of that getting shot and stabbed really hurts i tagged myself with a splinter while chopping wood a week or so ago and that hurt and i was cutting branches of palms today and that hurt

my uncle died and i felt nothing my boyfriend dumped me because he felt i didn't love him i didn't i again felt nothing

so with a choice between something that hurts and something that doesn't the one that hurts comes out on top that makes physical pain worse for me

 

[Danny Ocean]

Yes but emotional pain is EXCLUSIVELY in the mind, physical harm is backed up by actual injury and nerve endings releasing chemicals that specialize in making you suffer.

Emotional pain... well it's pretty much just 'negative' emotions like sadness from what I can tell, and I can't imagine why people let themselves get so worked up about it.

Except it's not just in the mind. It has real-world, physical consequences as you agree.

Its cause is often due to physical circumstances, too. The only real difference is that emotional pain rarely finds its cause in actual kinetic energy impacting the individual.

Both the causes and responses to emotional pain are observable in the natural world, and both are processed temporally. They're the same thing, you see?

The reason they can still be compared despite being effectively the same thing is that they have different causes. Physical pain is most often caused by a discrete action, whereas emotional pain is caused by a continuous unchangeable characteristic of the social or physical environment. The cause of emotional pain never goes away. That person will always be dead, there will never be an objective point to life, things will always be less than they could be, you will never achieve all your dreams, ideals can by definition never be reached.

In fact, even in a tortuous situation, much of the pain is itself emotional in the knowledge that you'll never be able to escape the physical pain. It becomes a matter of willpower, of 'breaking their spirit' in the words of torturers. Even in that most physically painful of situations, it isn't about physical pain, but emotional strength.

And you lost me...
Feeling actual pain because life is pointless?
Since when does anything ever have a neatly defined 'point' to it anyway?

That's precisely the point.

Heh.

No but really, it is. The problem people have is that there is no point to anything.

Just in case I made it sound like PEOPLE who commit suicide are stupid, let me clarify that I do not.
The ACTION is what I find stupid

I don't think you can distinguish like that. If a person takes a 'stupid' action, whatever that's even supposed to mean, they are a stupid person. I don't think a 'stupid' action can exist independently of a stupid person or persons. In the same way you can't have a dent without a surface or a smile without a face.

First world problems much?

Yes, that was an example I thought you'd be able to relate to, seeing as you're from the first world. Pointing out that an example is narrow in scope does not undermine the principal it's trying to get across. There is no flaw here despite the implication of your question.

And, actually, having been to a few developing countries, I can tell you that their reasons for depression are not that different to ours. They are perhaps more fundamental sometimes, but then fundamentality can only be judged in relation to social circumstances.

I'll have to see if I can find out how this works at another time, maybe something will change.

Should do. I've a more practiced empathetic mind due to my familial circumstances, which is why I can spout off and speculate motivations like this despite not being much older than you.

And in the end you'd be experiencing the emotional pain BECAUSE of physical pain anyway, just not your own.

That's wrong. Each independent experience of pain is a discreet entity. A husband killing himself because his wife died because she was hit by a car does not equate to the husband dying because he was hit by a car. His pain is entirely emotional. Her pain was entirely physical (if it was quick).

Physical pain can cause emotional pain which may cause something else, but that doesn't mean it is the proximate cause of that something else.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Depends on the context of the situation, but generally I'm more averse to physical pain.