I would agree with Ladycakes that depression or other mental illnesses can increase pain. There are chemical releases in the body where it makes you more sensitive to pain.

Another thing is that MI can lead you into a vicious cycle in life; especially in your social life. I read somewhere (and I believe this) that when you have some kind of MI, people pick up on it. If they don't know you, they don't know what your problem is, but they feel that there's something off about you. So it becomes a vicious cycle that you may be lonely; and then it's just hard to make friends because of this.

I do envy others who seem to have it together. They seem "happy-go-lucky" and have an easy time to have others drawn to them. Also they seem like when bad things happen, they can just wipe it right off of them.