Pain And Suffering.
By Pose123
@Pose123 (21635)
Canada
October 4, 2007 6:07pm CST
Is there a difference between pain and suffering? Can a person have pain and not suffer? During the Vietnam war protests, a Buddhist Monk set himself afire. As the flames engulfed him, he showed no sign of suffering. Many people witnessed this and perhaps millions more saw the pictures. We know that some people can handle pain better then others. Does this mean that the person who can take his mind off the pain, and talk about other things suffers less than the person who continually talks about the pain? I have a friend who I know is constantly in pain, yet sometimes I have been in his company for hours, and had I not known his condition, would never have known that he had any pain. Is he suffering as much as another friend who has to describe in detail every ache in his body? What is your opinion? Blessings.
2 people like this
9 responses
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
5 Oct 07
Pain is the hurt you feel when your arm is broken, suffering means having to do without holding your child because your arm is broken.
A person can have pain and yet not suffer, if for instance, he breaks his leg, and someone is there to care for him, but if because he breaks his leg, he can no longer provide for his family, if he sees that the mother has to work long hours at the dry cleaner, and that his unemployment check is denied because he did not get injured at work, then the man suffers.
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@alamode (3071)
• United States
5 Oct 07
I have a very high pain threshold... I talked and laughed with the EMT's for the 30-mile ride to the hospital when my leg was cut off.
My pain and suffering are completely separate... the pain is a constant, a given now... but how much I feel it depends on my medication. If the meds work properly, the worst of it is blocked and I can have an almost normal-feeling day.
But there are times when my schedule gets messed up. I can over-sleep by one hour and not be able to get my medication level right for a week! THEN I suffer...
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@alamode (3071)
• United States
5 Oct 07
I guess it must be a mental block, a sort of survival mechanism... if you allowed yourself to feel it, you wouldn't make it! My migraines were like that... like advanced labor, where you go away to that place in your head, where you can deal with it and come out the other side.
Now that I've cured the migraines, I'm working toward removing the rest of the chronic pain from my life. I am doing visualization and bio-feedback... self-taught, but effective with the meds I take.
I'm tired of being the 'poor thing'...
@poohgal (6845)
• Singapore
5 Oct 07
Hello there. I think this is a classic example of 'Mind over body'. Our human mind is incredible and if we know how to harness it well, we can actually use it to overcome many things including pain. I think physical pain is more bearable than emotional pain. Usually emotional pain is the most difficult to overcome.
It is indeed true that different people has different threshold of pain. I think your friend has a very low threshold of pain and that is why he is constantly complaining.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
5 Oct 07
I guess some suffer in silence and others want to make sure they don't suffer alone...lol! Seriously though, some people really can handle pain better than others and some have a much higher pain threshold. I do think you can take your mind off the pain to a certain extent sometimes but not always. I think it's more like your attention is divided so you're not concentrating on nothing but the pain but giving some of your brain over to something else. I guess that fits in with the whole theory of relativity actually. I would guess your friend that doesn't talk non-stop about his pain is probably suffering every bit as much as the one that gives you every detail but just deals with it better.
Annie
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