Pain - Which type is most difficult to cope with?

Australia
November 19, 2008 5:46am CST
As you can imagine, at the age of 42 I have experienced plenty of pain over the years including three births. Each of the three births were entirely different, the first was a backache labor, the second a 'normal' labor and the third was induced. But the pain that I find most difficult to handle is a toothache (especially an infected tooth or abscess). Maybe because the nerves are so close to the brain, I dunno. I mean, in a way that's logical because if you stub your toe by the time the pain message reaches your brain it's had chance to lose some of it's intensity. But the proximity of your teeth to your brain means that is not the case... at least that is how it seems. I suffer from migraine too (frequently caused by toothache) The only other pain that comes close is one that I experienced a couple of months ago. I suffered serious chest pain (I thought I was having a heart attack). I think the thing that made that hard to cope with was the sense of panic that I had with it. As they say, a feeling of impending doom. Thankfully it turned out not to be my heart, though they aren't sure what caused it. So what kind of pain do you find it hardest to cope with?
4 people like this
13 responses
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
20 Nov 08
Burns are probably the hardest to cope with for anybody -- or that's what I'd think anyway. It's the worst I've experienced. I've lived a somewhat...violent life, lol. I've been stabbed before, in fighting for my life. Smacked with a hammer in a similiar situation. My foot's been skewered by a stick (I skidded to a halt wrong, while running around in a particularly wild patch of country-side as a child). Thrown into gravel. Been in a fist-fight which blacked my eye, broke my lip. I was nearly strangled once, which left me with a painful and hoarse throat. But nothing really comes close to being burned. When I was...seven I think it was, I fell against a wood stove..and it was so hot that for a split second my arm was actually STUCK to the stove. It was a pretty bad burn, and the pain lasted for a couple months. No pain killers. Many years later now, you can hardly see the scar anymore. It's just a constant, no relief, intense pain that never lessens. It sears into your memory. I like to think that all this has given me a pretty good tolerance for pain, which is pretty fortunate.
1 person likes this
• United States
20 Nov 08
Definitely! I'd imagine that smarted quite a bit!
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Yeah, burns are pretty bad. Several years ago I had the bad habit of dressing in front of the heater in the winter time. One day I was standing nekkid in front of the heater and leaned down to pick up my undies and my butt touched the heater. Same thing, it kinda stuck for an instant but I jerked back and my shoulder hit the heater aswell. I ended up with 'tiger stripes' across my butt LOL (It was one of those wall furnaces). As You can imagine... I stopped getting dressed in front of the heater after that. Or at the very least made sure I wasn't that close.
@Grandmaof2 (7579)
• Canada
19 Nov 08
Right now I'd have to say all the migraine headaches I get. I have only hsd one child normal delivery twelve and a half hours labour but let me assure you the worse pain you can and will ever have is the pain that comes with a dislocation. I dislocated my shoulder once and my elbow twice. The last time was my elbow which was April 08 2008 I thought I'd die. That's how I spell pain. I've even had a couple doctors tell me that in training they were told that the worse pain people have are dislocated joints.
1 person likes this
• Canada
20 Nov 08
Well perhaps but I think when you're so young and I can see a finger maybe being eazier to work with but you certainly can't pop in an elbow or a shoulder and when they had to move my elbow do exray I thought I'd die and I have a very high pain tolerance. I had terrible dental problems and even needed surgery have had false teeth since I was 23 and I agree it's terrible and definately takes number two spot, but I'll never forget the pain of dislocation.
@greysfreak (1384)
• United States
20 Nov 08
I'm a bit weird with pain, in that some things that other people freak out about, don't bother me--but somethings I'm extra sensitive about. For example, I have 2 tattoos, my first was on my knuckles and before I got it people were all like "that's gonna hurt", mind you, they didn't have a tattoo there so I don't know how they could say that. But that was fine for me, the same with my 2nd--and I've had multiple piercings. But at the same time, I tend to be sensitive to touch, if I am poked or touched it tends to hurt, maybe it's just sensitivity. That being said... the worst pain for me tends to be stomach pain and acid reflux, at the same time, the worst long term pain I've experienced physically was when I broke my ankle last year, it was my first even break--in all my 25(at the time 24) years. It was truly the worst pain I can remember, to the point that sometimes still over a year later my ankle acts up--especially with bad weather or if I don't get enough sleep. Also, general muscle/joint pain bothers me--when I do too much (like hours) working out at a time I end up hurting all over for days, so that is also pretty bad, but not as bad a a broken bone, but still makes activity harder to do. As for non-physical pain, I'd have to say that depression and mental pain is much worse for me than most physical pain, in that, spiritual pain tends to bring on physical pain as well, so it's an overall feeling of being drained physically and mentally. I am sure that at some point in my life I will face worse pain, but at this point in life that's about it, thankfully.
1 person likes this
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Well, at the age of 42 and with a history of early onset arthritis in the family a lot of my joints are starting to ache so I can relate to that one. But yes, the emotional pain thing is the hardest because there is nothing you can take for it.
@cryw0lf (1302)
• United Kingdom
19 Nov 08
Haha the most difficult type of pain for me is heartache- but physically it definitely has to be a toothache. When i had my braces fitted- because my teeth weren't that straight. It was so painful, the whole on my mouth- every tooth ached- i actually just wanted to try and rip the braces off. Eventually after 4-5 days... it stopped. But apart from that it was 4-5 days of constant pain. And what's most- my teeth were so tender i struggled to eat- struggled to drink, and pills didnt seem to do anything. So i agree with you. -Also heartburn, i get really bad heartburn sometimes.
1 person likes this
• Australia
19 Nov 08
Ohh yeah, heartburn can really be hard to cope with too. I suffer from chronic gastric reflux so I know exactly how you feel. But I find that a little easier than toothache to cope with.
1 person likes this
• New Zealand
20 Nov 08
Hey there well the most pain that I have ever experienced is having gale stones I have had to live with them for at least the last 6 months they reckon that having gale stones are as painful as giving birth to a child but I would personally have no idea as I have never given birth to an child. Arohnui Love loveyoohbaby xoxo
• New Zealand
21 Nov 08
Hey there once again thank you for your responds.I am so sorry to hear about your friend but at least she ended up all right in the end. Arohnui Love loveyoohbaby xoxo.
• Philippines
20 Nov 08
hardets for me is hwen it comes to relationship. how hard it is to accept that you can never a change a person. :(
1 person likes this
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Yes, emotional pain is probably the worst... and the hardest to heal.
@selina0625 (1379)
• Philippines
19 Nov 08
The pain that is brought about by a heartbreak, that is I think the pain that is hardest to deal with.With physical pain you can just take a pain reliever right, but with a heartbreak , this wouldn't go away, only time can heal it.
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Quite often time doesn't really heal it either, just makes it less immediate.
@hiddenwing (3719)
• China
20 Nov 08
I find toothache is hard to stand too! But, all any of them is phycial pain. The pain that is more painful is the heart pain like growing pains! When you get phycial, it is easy to heal. But when someone's heart get hurt, it will be difficult to crue!
• Australia
20 Nov 08
That is very true. Not like you can take a pill and make it go away
• Estonia
19 Nov 08
I suffered different kinds of pain in my life but I heard that the most unbearable pain is the one from the bite of a scorpion. It is said that you will suffer so much that you will want to kill yourself if you get a bite. Gladly I have never experienced a scorpion bite.
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Sounds like I definitely don't want that one.
@lazeebee (5461)
• Malaysia
20 Nov 08
The most difficult pain I had experienced, and really dread to go through it again was UIT (urinary tract infection). It happened middle of one night, and it was so painful that I couldn't walk - my husband took me to the emergency ward; and I opted for the needle - faster relief. I never want to go through it again!
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Yes, definitely an unpleasant one. I tend to get those once or twice a year. Never as severe as the one you had but yes, still extremely painful
@bamakelly (5191)
• United States
19 Nov 08
All of these pains that you have mentioned are definitely hard to deal with. I have had two babies in my time. I am now forty. I believe that I was lucky enough to have epidural procedures both times. I do remember having contractions for a while. They sure are tough to handle! I had a kidney stone some years ago and boy did that hurt my back. Almost came close to being worse than labor pains but not that close! I would say that labor and kidney stones are kind of the front runners for pain in my estimation. Take care.
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Yeah, gotta admit that labor is right up there in terms of severity for pain. But as I said, the one I find hardest to cope with is toothache.
@katrhina23 (1282)
• United States
19 Nov 08
For ordinary pains, the most difficult to cope with for em is toothache. Its like the whole body aches and you could cry when you experienced that pain. But there was really this kind of pain that I experienced like 5 years ago. My whole back ached and which goes to my stomache and the sides. That time, I cant walk and i can't move. It was difficult for me to even ride the car. It happened to me twice and i thought it was just simple back pains. But the third attack which was real bad, i was rushed to the hospital. It turned out that my gall bladder was infected. I went on a diet, no oil, no fatty food, no big amount of food. I was operated after a few months after the swollen gall bladder subsided. I browsed on the internet and I found out that that pain was 3x the pain of a heart attack. Well now, I wouldnt be experiencing it anymore since my gall bladder has been removed.
• Australia
20 Nov 08
Yeouch... that sounds really bad. Personally, I have a high pain tolerance but yeah, you still don't want to experience pain in any case. I mean, I got through all three labors without any form of pain relief. (Not even the gas)
@vandhu (432)
• India
19 Nov 08
when your love is broken for a reason which you "donno", tat serves to be a severe pain.this love could also be called as "affection" towards your friends and relations. but when "tat" is broken you will face a pain which is really very difficult to cope with...
• Australia
20 Nov 08
I'm talking more about physical pain here rather than emotional but yes, in a lot of ways emotional pain is much worse than physical.