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What's worse?

User Profile: Creamyyy
Creamyyy July 2nd, 2025

What kind of pain is worse?

  1. Physical - like having bodily pain from injury, disease.

  2. Mental- like dealing with painful emotions as in depression, trauma.

Please share your insights- whether from observation, reflection or personal experience.

------------------------

For me:

I feel physical suffering is worse for me....

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User Profile: DryRain16
DryRain16 July 3rd, 2025

It depends... because, usually, in my average state of mind, i usually think tha getting hit by a car would only make my day better. HOWEVER, when i get a heavy indigestion or something and my whole body gets sick and i have a feaver, my stomach hurts, food tastes bad, i have a headache, my eyes hurt and sting and so on... when i get to that point, suddenly, my usual depression feels like a luxury... so... i guess it's about balance, not choosing one over the other...

User Profile: Empathniyah
Empathniyah July 3rd, 2025

@Creamyyy honestly I feel there both hard as heck ! but I will say mentally first our mind is very powerful and when your depressed , stressed  worrying even feeling fear it can send trigger points to your body which can cause the fatigue , sadness , anger etc , this is why I always try to encourage others that mental exercise is just as important as the physical exercise , if our mind is not made up or filled with negativity it wont cause our physical self to move .

User Profile: Creamyyy
Creamyyy OP July 3rd, 2025

Thank you everyone for these wonderful responses. Its made me reflect.

User Profile: lovingCat6978
lovingCat6978 July 3rd, 2025

@Creamyyy This is a pretty good question, actually! I am one to believe in the mind-body connection.
If I'm being honest, both physical and mental pain are both profoundly debilitating, but there are individuals who feel pain in different ways. 

Physical pain is easier to see, is often more validated, can be treated with proper medical interventions, but in those with chronic pain, that can significantly affect their mental health, thus significantly impacting their quality of life. 

With mental pain, depression anxiety, or trauma is not equally as seen and can be even more challenging, if not equal. The experience of pain is subjective in my eyes, since there are different tolerances for both types of pain you can feel, some can even translate from feeling extreme mental pain to physical pain as a result too, sometimes both at the same time can simply be worse than one of them on their own.

It's important to consider that both types of pain can coexist and be equally validated. For many reasons, I won't say one or the other is worse or not, as that can lead to comparison... which I fear, isn't very good for anyone considering how subjective pain is. 😊

2 replies
User Profile: Creamyyy
Creamyyy OP July 4th, 2025

@lovingCat6978 subjective... absolutely! ✨️

User Profile: ReservedHickory86
ReservedHickory86 July 4th, 2025

What if the mental abuse was equal on both sides? Sometimes that is hard to define. I’ve been the subject of mental abuse but sometimes you respond with an equally valid response.

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User Profile: ReservedHickory86
ReservedHickory86 July 4th, 2025

I’ve been beaten up and been told I’m a loser. Picking one over the other is for me not possible. I took matters into my own hands and learned to fight. That was step one. Step 2 was to help others in my old situation. So I guess it was physical at first and physical the second time too.

1 reply
User Profile: ReservedHickory86
ReservedHickory86 July 4th, 2025

You have no idea how many people thanked me for standing up for them. That was my win.

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User Profile: adaptiveMelody7976
adaptiveMelody7976 July 4th, 2025

@Creamyyy physical, absolutely. mental is crazy hard too, i'm not saying it's easy to live with. but paralysis, tumors, cancer, conditions like that not only limit your life but you also get affected mentally because of them too. 

User Profile: eternalHero77
eternalHero77 July 4th, 2025

For me the worse is pain from physical illnesses but the mental will bother me mainly when 3 situations of my past resurface in my memory but they can be talked about and soon pain dissipates where the physical toy can learn to work with but remains a pressing issue to deal with on a daily basis.

2 replies
User Profile: eternalHero77
eternalHero77 July 4th, 2025

User Profile: ReservedHickory86
ReservedHickory86 July 5th, 2025

Wow, I have no idea what you meant with that comment.

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User Profile: Creamyyy
Creamyyy OP July 4th, 2025

I am sorry for everyone going through pain (mental/ physical whichever one it is) .... prayers for healing ✨️💛

1 reply
User Profile: Amanda84
Amanda84 July 5th, 2025

@Creamyyy

💜

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User Profile: Amanda84
Amanda84 July 5th, 2025

@Creamyyy

For me when I'm suffering with physical pain, it's all I can think about and therefore I'm not in good form and my mental health suffers as a result. Mental pain is lingering, and grips you, and leaves scars, that don't heal and it can be a pain so strong, that your heart literally feels like it could break out of your chest.

User Profile: reliableWalker3334
reliableWalker3334 July 6th, 2025

Mental