I keep reading/hearing references to this. I know what emotions are -- I'm not *that* numbed. Nightmares can be unpleasant, running from people turned into large snakes. And the happiness/joy I experience when I watch my border collie pup flush and chase a fox -- and the fox is having as much fun as my pup. But sad/grief/anger doesn't equate to pain.

I can even understand suicide. When I've contemplated it, it wasn't because of pain, but of pointlessness and boredom, and sometimes feeling sorry for myself.

Give me the choice of any emotion you want and hitting my thumb with a hammer, I'll take the emotion every time.

Is this a weirdness of the English language that they use pain for really different feelings or am I the one who's weird.