Which hurts worse, physical or emotional pain?

I find that people love to say “I can handle anything physical you throw at me but keep mental issues away from me.” I laugh because I know these people have not experienced chronic physical pain.

If I know it’s going to be temporary then I’d rather have physical pain but goddamn, anything chronic is nothing to shake a stick at.

I don’t believe you can compare one with the other, they are altogether different creatures. Having experienced both, I would choose neither.

Laughs, that wasn’t a choice, although I don’t disagree with you. Both suck.

I think they’re both terrible, but the quality and experience is very different. Also, it depends upon how/why the injury was acquired.

I think if someone got hurt in an accident, like if they broke their arm tripping on a banana peel, even though the physical pain might be excruciating, it’s not likely that the person would think that they deserved it or that they can’t go on living like they might if they had a particularly traumatizing experience with being mentally abused, or having someone they love deeply not love them back (with or without a physical injury).

Also, if the person sustained both a physical wound and a mental wound, such as being an abused child or spouse, the devastation is likely to be amplified dramatically. If the person acquired a broken arm through abuse, rather than by an accident, even if it was the same type of injury that another person, who slipped on a banana peel sustained, I think the abuse victim would also have shame, confusion and fear added into the mix.

Both kinds of pain are awful and I don’t wish it on anyone.

Physical hurts worse. Emotional is all in your head and you have some control over it.

As @Mariah said, chronic pain is the worst.

That said, almost all emotional pain is chronic to a degree. You crack your funny bone and you have excruciating pain that you don’t remember ½ an hour later. You feel a quick, sharp emotional pain and you’re likely to still worrying it over ½ day later.
If someone deliberately runs over your foot and breaks your toe out of spite, the physical pain will go away, the emotional pain is likely to return every time you see that person.

Physical pain is animal.
Emotional pain is human.

You’ve torn up both knees, shattered a collarbone, and taken a nasty concussion, and yet you are still fine. But now do you still remember any emotional pain you have suffered in the past?

They don’t invent mental torture for nothing.

Both are horrible but I think I can cope with emotional pain better than chronic physical pain. Most emotional pain will pass, eventually.

I’ve had #10 physical pain bring me to my knees where I began dry heaving and passed out. I’ll take emotional pain any day. HA!