NationStates Jolt Archive

What do you think hurts more physical or mental pain?
Being shot in the legs must hurt a lot :mp5:
But hearing the news of your family's brutal deaths would be pretty awful too :( .

Or maybe I'm just using this thread as an excuse to plonk smilies all over the place...

Mental pain can leave a much more profound impact on a person than physical pain. Of course, it depends on the degree as well. Obviously, getting both legs blown off would probably hurt a lot more than someone poking fun at your hat.

Getting kicked in the knackers is much worse than having them insulted. Fact.

I would personally say that physical pain is a bit worse myself, but then I'm slightly unhinged already (big up the manic depression massif!), so my opinion's not that valid *sighs*

You can't always seperate the two. A friend of mine was shot in the throat once. He never really recovered from the mental strain of having a brush with mortality & being denied medical attention.

That said, I think your average winter depression or heartbreak is a great deal worse than suffering some non-permanent injury, almost regardless of severity.

Physical Pain.

"Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

Well, words hurt a heck of a lot, but not as much as broken bones. It's physical pain that compounds mental pain. Mental pain, in that sense, can never be as strong without physical pain.

A man is beaten up and raped because he's gay. Now, take away the rape part. Would the mental pain be anything? Probably not. He'd probably just brush it off.

They both hurt hard, but mental pain hurts much harder! Your body can take a lot of pain and still regenerate itself, but your mental health can be damaged very badly and is not able to regenerate itself! Even if you are a high-trained professional you can´t resist to mental torture for longer than 2 months(I read psychoacoustics magazines) but you can stand against physical pain nearly endless if you have a strong psyche! So I think mental pain hurts much harder.

Physical pain.

One can "turn off" mental pain; in fact, I generally feel almost nothing emotionally. You can turn off physical pain as well, but it still hurts.

Has there ever been a physical pain so severe that you cannot feel it any more?

There are lots of mental pains that do damage like that. Some mental strikes you can receive can absolutely destroy your psychological condition.

Does it hurt more? No. But its effect is far worse.

What about that type of pain where it's all in your head, but it actually feels physical? Like back in the days when those religious people had problems where they coulda sworn they were damaged physically when really nothing physical happened to them and they got bruises just 'cos they imagined everything happening to them.

Kinda like what happens in RL in the Matrix. What about that kind of pain? Which is that?

I probably have my facts all wrong anyway, but still. I know it can happen.

I voted physical. IMO mental pain can be far more devastatingly hurtful than physical pain if you aren't well equipped to deal with it. However, if you are particularly adept at 'dealing' then the same mental pain can be shrugged off without care or concern. Physical pain seems far more physiologically tied to hurt levels (in terms of actual pain). As such, I think it would be much harder to train yourself to 'deal' with physical pain (at least at high levels).

Personally, you could tell me the rest of my family died right now, and I would be shocked, but certainly not hurt. The knowledge would just become reality, and I would get on with it. No point getting depressed.

In contrast, I'm a real wuss with physical pain. Even the prospect makes me squirm. I would crack in an interrogative torture room before they even revealed the instruments.

@AOT

I would say that's the pain caused by excess existentialism, myself.

But hearing the news of your family's brutal deaths would be pretty awful too :( .
Actually, no. I'd just stand there with a blank expression, shrug, and go on with my life.

Then again, you haven't met my family. ;)

Actually, no. I'd just stand there with a blank expression, shrug, and go on with my life.

Then again, you haven't met my family. ;)

You can say that now, but I'm sure that it'd be much worse than that if it really happened.

Actually, no. I'd just stand there with a blank expression, shrug, and go on with my life.

Then again, you haven't met my family. ;)

Same, I know how you feel, man.

Mental pain has always been more incapacitating to me than physical pain, and I would go so far as to say that, while I do feel physical pain, it's easy for me to keep going, even if it hurts a lot (see: My knee after the skiing accident, and my stubborn refusal to visit a doctor.) Mental pain has put me into slumps in the past, where I just hung out and did nothing. Having the screwed up knee didn't do that.

Physical pain is fleeting, and once it's gone, you can't remember what exactly it felt like.

Mental pain, however, can always be remembered.

Mental pain. If someone cuts off your hand, eventually it'll heal, and you'll stop hurting. But if you watch someone cut off the hands of every member of your family, you'll remember it for the rest of your life.

Physical pain is fleeting, and once it's gone, you can't remember what exactly it felt like.

Mental pain, however, can always be remembered.

Exactly what i wanted to say, but i have just one thing to add. Mental pain can always be remebered, but there's always the chance that the mental pain won't go away in the first place.

mental pain...

IMO mental pain can be far more devastatingly hurtful than physical pain if you aren't well equipped to deal with it. However, if you are particularly adept at 'dealing' then the same mental pain can be shrugged off without care or concern. Physical pain seems far more physiologically tied to hurt levels (in terms of actual pain). As such, I think it would be much harder to train yourself to 'deal' with physical pain (at least at high levels).

I have to disagree with you there. People can learn to deal with physical pain.

Scenario number one. This little kid starts a new school. This school is full of bullies. Every day these bullies beat him up. What will he do? He'll get sick of always being picked on. He'll take a few martial arts classes etc and get stronger. He'll then go and beat the bullies up and pay them back for all the hurt.

Scenario number two. This little kid starts a new school. This school is full of bullies. Every day these bullies verbally abuse him. What will he do? Well there is a slight chance he might get emotionally stronger, but most people are incapable of that. His other options are to sit around being depressed, or to commit suicide. This not only bad for one person but it also affects many people around. My best friend's previous best friend killed himself because of being verbally abused. She was depressed for too long after and even considered doing the same thing.

Just to sum everything I have said so far up I want to say this, 'Physical pain can last minutes, days, weeks, months maybe. Mental pain can last a lifetime.'

If you combined all the kicks to the nads I have ever had it still wouldn’t hurt as much as heartbreak but to avoid me becoming a woman I will say this…..

What would you rather?

A) dead arm

B) someone saying your not good at anything

I choose A every time

If you combined all the kicks to the nads I have ever had it still wouldn’t hurt as much as heartbreak but to avoid me becoming a woman I will say this…..

What would you rather?

A) dead arm

B) someone saying your not good at anything

I choose A every time

I'm costantly being told I'm not good at anything. I would prefer a dead arm.

physical pain is jst weakness leaving the body
mental pain is weakness entering the body

It's like attacking in a video game.

Damage Over Time (DoT) attacks are slightly weaker, but do more overall damage over the long run.

Regular attacks or special attacks do singular damage, once, and do greater initial damage.

They both have their weak and strong points.

It's like attacking in a video game.

Damage Over Time (DoT) attacks are slightly weaker, but do more overall damage over the long run.

Regular attacks or special attacks do singular damage, once, and do greater initial damage.

They both have their weak and strong points.

Actually it's very much different from a game. These are people's lives we are talking about here! You can't possibly compare it to a game!

I am sorry to everyone that may be offended by my posts. I don't mean them to be offensive. I just feel very strongly about this subject as I have been a victim of verbal abuse nearly all my life and it is time for it to stop.

Difficult to tell. It may very well depend on personal experiences as to which pain somebody views as being more painful. They are entirely two different sensations so it would be difficult to make a direct comparison. If somebody has experienced worse physical pain than emotional pain they may be more inclined to believe that physical pain is worse than emotional pain. Likewise I could make that same statement and replace physical and emotional with each other. Regardless of that, a chronic physical pain could have emotional implications over time. Likewise a chronic emotional pain could lead to physical problems as well.

Ultimately I'm going to have to go with emotional pain as being worse. I'm saying this because some people suffering from emotional pain may induce physical pain on themselves to try to distract themselves from the emotional pain.