Pain makes terrible permanent decisions when you let it speak for your future.

Pain speaks with tremendous certainty about the future, and it is almost always wrong, because it is describing the present with the volume turned up. It will tell you that nothing will change, that this is what your life is now, and that permanent decisions follow logically. Those conclusions are produced by the state, not by the facts. They tend to look very different once the intensity drops.

When you are hurting, protect yourself from anything irreversible, and let the important decisions wait until the acute part has passed. Give yourself a rule about this in advance if you can. If the pain is severe or persistent, this is exactly the point to bring another person into it.