Why is emotional pain so much more painful than actual physical pain?

Because most human beings are more intelligent and emotional than they are physical. The brain is humanities greatest strength, not our physical ability. So, if we're more mental than physical, it seems natural that emotional pain hurts more than physical pain.

The broken tortured body of a 2 year old rape victim would surely indicate that their physical pain was far worse than that of the 16 year olds emotional pain resulting from her first boyfriend leaving her. The one suffering emotional pain would surely feel their life sentence of it was far worse than the physical pain endured by someone who was accidentally injured in a bar fight.

Given that physical and emotional pain vary greatly in depth and degree .. it is my belief that one cannot fairly or reasonably measure it unless one were to suffer each of them, to the extreme, and even then, the result would still remain, a personal opinion only.

Any pain, or problem is more difficult, if you can't actually see what you are dealing with. In therapy, most therapists try to get you to honestly lay everything out there so you can begin to see what the problems are and what you are really dealing with.


Physical pain you can sometimes see visually. Our bodies are amazing in the sense that physically they actually forgive what we do to ourselves, and what has been done to us and heal.

Emotionally when we haven't yet learned to love ourselves, and forgive ourselves, we hurt and are in pain until we learn to practice forgiveness. In life we are always learning and if we can learn to change our thinking, we can change all our experiences.


Matt

Because your heart can feel and remember and tries to figure out what has caused the pain. The muscles and bones forget the pain once the pain is cured.

Because you can't put an icepack or a band-aid on it.

Because it most likely takes longer to heal.

I think emotional pain IS physical pain...depression has real physical symptoms, with pain, fatigue, etc. I think we separate mind from body too much here in the West. If it were a simple matter of choice between a more obviously physical issue such as a broken leg (or worse) and deep emotional pain from the loss of a loved one, I would always take the first because it is obvious to everyone, it can be treated easily, and there is no stigma attached to it.

It hurts your heart, not your body.
And your body heals much faster.

I think is because you know that the physical pain will go away eventually and emotional pain usually increases with time, at least thats the way it is for me.

because those kind of knives are that much sharper and they pass right by your skin.

because mental aguish cannot be dulled by a pain killer and tru menatl sufering has no rhyme or reason somethimes, if you shatter your tibula you know how it happened, If you are suffering from bi-polar as I have you tend to not undddersatand why

from a medical standpoint, phys pain is a duration of how long neuro receptors are stimulated throughout the body, emotional pain is usually longer in duration and isnt really comparable to actual phys pain. it is better compared to other emotional factors like depression, anxiety, ect. emotional pain is a round up dx for a cumulation of things like (death of a loved one) thus starting the 5 stages of the greaving process. however there have been cases of people who say they have had a tramatic emotional event, and ever since they have physical pain but mri's labs everything we do does not validate why. but instead of emotional pain, im thinking your refering to saddness/depression. and if so, yes it is long in duration and usually goes a long time before it is dx. people quickly know when they have physical pain as seek treatment. but i think this is like comparing apples to oranges. just my 2 cents worth, only god really knows. hope this helps.

It hurts your mind and heart.

physical pain is just like a cloudy weather
but emotional pain is like a serious damage of climate.

Wait until your in some unbarable physical pain. Looseing your boyfriend might hurt more than stubbing a toe but trust me wait until you get shot before you make that analogy.

I would think it depends on the degree of both.

If you believe that, you haven't been in any serious physical pain. Trust me, it's an absolute bitch.

Your body is able to adapt to pain, i.e. the skin callouses and then there is the possibility or even the probability that your pain threshold can increase. In the end, emotional pain tends to build and with physical pain, you can minimize the damage by focusing on something else, but that is hard to do with emotional pain.

Because most physical pains have a drug you can take to make it go away. Emotional pain is something that has hurt your entire being, whether it be losing a loved one, seing something horrific, or being betrayed by your best friend. These pains only time can heal. Talking also helps.

I think its because emotional pain is from the heart, there is no bandaid, no pain pill, and the emotional pain stays with you and can change you like forever you cant forget it good or bad, its like a movie clip inprinted in your heart and mind..

There is no way to determine whether emotional pain is any more intense than physical pain. Perhaps we have this view of emotional pain because it doesn't heal as quickly as most physical pain. Perhaps because most emotional pain involves aspects of our self-image, the pain seems to be much deeper and more intense.

Its reinforced by our mental state and fed by our emotions. Sometimes over and over and over and over again.

hello, because emotional pain cuts deep and lasts a long time,really,you never get over the pain of being emotionally hurt.

You can't take a pain killer for it in the way you can take ibuprofen, or aspirin.

BECAUSE THE SCAR NEVER FADES!! I GAVE BIRTH TO 2 BOYS 100% NATURAL AND I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN JUST NOT WITH THEIR CHEATING DAD STILL MARRIED 13 YRS TRYING TO FORGET AND MOVE ON BUT THERE ARE DAILY DOSES OF SALT SUCH HAS HERE NAME, WHERE THEY WENT, THE FACT HE WAS GOING TO LEAVE US FOR HER AND HE CLAIMS HE DID NOT EVEN GET A PIECE BS SHE JUST DOESN'T GET A JOB AT THE SAME COMPANY HE DID 10 MONTHS LATER! I ONLY HAVE 10 YRS TO GO. I WILL NEVER TRUST HIM AGAIN SO WE WILL NEVER HAVE A RELATIONSHIP BEYOND RAISING THE BOYS AND OCCASIONAL PHYSICAL NEED I HAVE SLEPT IN MY OWN ROOM FOR 5 YRS SINCE SHE JUST HAPPENED TO GET A JOB WHERE HE WORKED AND SHARE A CUBICLE.

You cant get over it quickly, and you cant take painkillers..

You can take a pain killer for most of your physical pains, it will subside... for your emotional pain you really cant. I also believe that chronic physical pain is as bad as emotional pain.

You can take pain killers for physical pain, they haven't come up with a pain pill for the emotional pain yet.

sugar, i agree with free radical, physical pain is emotional pain. The mind is the body. Its not our fault thatwe think the way our parents did. Stuck in a baby Cartesian dualism that separates the mind and the body as if the mind was the autistic child we didnt like to talk about because we dont understand him?
the body is the mind. the neurological pathways involved in an infant's cross crawling are the same as for learning.
Move!! nothing happens until something moves (einstein) you are designed to move. run into happiness. get a massage. see a chiropractor. focus on gaining health instead of losing sickness. and watch will ferrell movies

You can't compare them because no one has actually felt both to the max. People say that emotional pain is worse because they haven't felt true physical pain. Others say that Physical pain is worse because they haven't felt true emotional pain.