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Why You Suffer More in Imagination than You Do in Reality

How to control expectations, ruminations and worries

Rajeet S
Amalgamate
8 min readSep 27, 2022

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Photo by Catalin Pop on Unsplash

We suffer more in Imagination than we do in reality.

I love this quote. Immortalised by Seneca 2000 years ago it points at a truth we often don’t realise, especially when we are in the midst of suffering.

Why, though? Do we really suffer more in imagination?

Suffering itself is a fascinating concept. It can be seen as anything a person experiences which could be categorised as negative. It can be physical; from the pain of a pinprick to the visceral agony of a serious bodily wound, or it could be emotional; from the hurt of a breakup to the extreme lows of grief and despair of depression.

Physical suffering is fairly straightforward. If you get a paper-cut, it hurts — there are no two ways about it — but the amount of pain can differ person to person.

This is fascinating within itself because it points to suffering existing in the perception of the individual.

You and I both know what a paper-cut feels like, but I will never know exactly how you experience the pain of that annoyingly deep little cut. I can’t put myself into your mind and body to really experience the pain…

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Amalgamate
Amalgamate

Published in Amalgamate

Psychology, philosophy, science and where they intersect.

Rajeet S
Rajeet S

Written by Rajeet S

Rajeet enjoys mixing cocktails and bombarding strangers with philosophy.

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