I tried to distinguish pain from suffering as two very different things.
Pain is physical, objective and real. It can be treated with medicine or not, and it is there whether one is stoic or sensitive to it. It can indeed be both protracted and agonizing.
Suffering in not just enduring pain, it is reveling in it. It is assigning to it values like consciousness, or luck, or infliction by magical forces. It is frequently reminding those about you that you have pain and must be sympathized with because of it. That they must assist and abide you, and give you consideration because you have pain. It is making pain something that it is not.
And while people frequently equate pain with suffering, it is a poor comparison. Pain is normal and objective. Suffering brings out the worst of a person’s ego and self pity.
Pain makes life unpleasant, but suffering makes people want to commit suicide.
Man in Black: "Life is pain, your highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
-The Princess Bride
Very interesting perspective and well articulated.