which is worse?

[opalkoboi]

Good point, however the loss of a limb is emoptional too, because you won't walk again. That's why loosing the limb is bad, so that is emotional. Everything goes back to emotions in the end. You'd accept you had lost a limb, but you'd hurt everyday you couldn't run and play sports.

[Kitsy]

I guess then you can't really seperate physical or emotional pain? Like, people go through physical symptoms if they go through intense emotional pain (ie. clinical depression, loss of weight, feeling sick etc.). So yeah, they're either too different to compare or to intertwined to seperate.

[opalkoboi]

I think they are interwined, but emotional lasts longer as I said, and everyone gets over physical pain and accepts it, yet the psychological damage is still there.

[Rocket Axxonu]

My first response to this was kind of on the border and that it kind of depended on what it is, how extreme the physical pain, etc. but now that I think about it more, I have to agree with those of you that have said emotional pain is worse. I don't say it because physical pain heals faster than emotional pain (though I agree that often that is a huge factor, such as if you're comparing a broken leg to a friend betraying you), because sometimes the physical pain doesn't go away and there is no hope of it going away. Also, people who have been tortured can be/are likely scarred as well (though suffering from a memory of pain might be classified as 'emotional' I suppose...)

A speaker came to a church I was visiting once, and her story has really stuck with me. She was diagnosed with chronic back pain (it is a very extreme pain, all the time, and the way she described it was hard to listen to, because I have a low tolerance for any kind of pain myself), and it was incureable. She had endured it for quite awhile, but she got to a point where she could take no more, and planned to commit suicide.

But what drove her to want to kill herself, from the way she spoke, was not from the physical pain, but from the feelings of uselessness she had. Before the back pain, she had been an active member in the community with a successful career, and an involved mother and wife. But she had to cut back everything she was doing to almost nothing because she was physically unable to do those things anymore, and it seemed like it was that that crushed her the most.

I couldn't imagine living with that kind of pain, so the strength she had and the strength of her testimony were very striking to me. Even though she was still living with that constant pain as she was speaking to us, she wasn't miserable as she had been before, when she felt as though her life no longer had any meaning.

So, I think physical pain can make us more susceptible to emotional pain, but the emotional pain is the worst part overall. When one is suffering emotionally, they sometimes try to escape it with physical pain, but I can't imagine someone trying to escape physical pain by inflicting emotional pain on themselves. (Although, this is mainly theorhetical for me, since when I take a look at the world around me and what people have to suffer, I see that I have led a relatively physical and emotional pain-free existence)

[Frondish17]

I think emotional pain is worse not in terms of severity per se, but because it is more lonely. If you think about it, many times if you are in physical pain there are people who will willingly do things for you. You can get pills from a doctor, you'll be treated sympathetically by friends and family, etc. But if you are suffering from emotional pain, like guilt, it is a secret pain that you can't let anyone see. You have to deal with it by yourself, and people will just not know and not care.

[Athena32]

I voted emotional pain, because it can hold such a sway over you throughout your entire life. I had this one awful experience with a clique when I was in 3rd grade, and I still got a fight or flight reaction when I confronted them after class for making fun of me recently. I'm still afraid of them, and it's been 4 years! Although this experience has made me stronger, it was harder to deal with than any injury I've ever gotten (and I once fell off my bike, decimated my knee, and then ridden 40 miles home without a bandaid.