Question

Here's a question that has been weighing on my mind forever and I'm not sure if this is the right spot for it.

For me it's emotional pain that hurts worse. I would take kidney stones again over someone close to me hurting me emotionally.

Living with a husband who has dealt with chronic debilitating physical pain now for 32 years, I say both. The additional issue with serious physical pain is that it also has the ability to torture a person emotionally and psychologically. Chronic physical pain limits your ability to function, to move, to work, to just go out and take a walk. It's effects are just as devastating, perhaps even moreso with the compounded depression and anxiety that goes with it. People often forget that physical is not always short-term. They associate it with kidney stones or childbirth or a broken leg -- things that don't last very long. Unfortunately, many, many people in this world live with chronic physical pain that nothing improves, medication doesn't touch, and actually becomes worse over time. I wouldn't want my husband's physical pain -- ever.

I would say both. Both are detrimental to one's quality of life.