Perhaps. I'm not incline to produce a hierarchy of misery. Some folk are too ready to make claims for others, especially where such things do not admit of comparison. It's too easy. This is to the point:

How have you established that you have have a fair interpretation of his choices/situation? — Tom Storm

What we have is the public, actionable discourse, The stuff philosophy doesn't do.

that stalled creativity... — Tom Storm

Or autonomy? The absence of exploring (realising) one's capacities: Nassbaum...

How have you established that you have have a fair interpretation of his choices/situation? Is self-medication a reaction to suffering, a form of suffering or something else in your view? — Tom Storm

He had been sober for about 5 years after a long bout with alcohol and was trying to complete a graduate program in psychology, while aiming to transition to female gender. He was thrown out of the program for failing to compete certoa. requirements and this led him back to drinking. But I could see the tremendous anxiety he battled with while he was sober, on a daily basis. There were all sorts of signs that life was becoming too much for him to cope with without assistance.

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I have noticed that people who are homeless often have chronic and severe depression - it often presents after becoming homeless (but may also sometimes be a cause of homelessness) and i generally see it as part of the suffering intrinsic to many people's experience of living homeless.

that 'stalled creativity' or frozenness seems to eat people alive and I certainly recognise this in the lives of many folk I have worked with (and colleagues, but that's another story). — Tom Storm

Would you agree, from your experience, that what shatters people’s lives is the loss of the sense of connection with others, of having worth, of being held in esteem, more than material deprivation or physical illness? This is really at the heart of what I mean by ‘ ‘creativity’. For most people, what gives them their sense of being creatively vital is knowing that they belong, that they have a purpose that touches the lives of others. A family can be homeless, and for the children the homelessness may not have much meaning. Instead, what they will care about is the bond with their parents. If they have that , their physical situation will be less relevant. Even for the parents, the most painful aspect of being homeless may not be the material deprivation as much as the wound to their sense of worth and dignity, the trauma of failure.

How have you established that you have have a fair interpretation of his choices/situation?
— Tom Storm

What we have is the public, actionable discourse, The stuff philosophy doesn't do. — Banno

Not sure what you mean here. I would say that my determination of my friend’s perspective and motivation is a process of trying on for size different ways of construing his actions , and seeing how well each of these templates can anticipate and make sense of his future behavior. The aim is to be able to fluidly ‘dance’ with him discursively so that my surprise at what he does or says is minimized, and I can constructively contribute to his needs. a

Suffering is what makes pleasure and joy mean something. Without that contrast they eventually dull.

Plus looking at all the different responses to suffering from people across history I'd say it's a rather complex issue.

What is the purpose of suffering? — Yohan

Since suffering has no discernible intrinsic purpose, I take it you mean 'what purpose can we assign to suffering or make it serve'?

Some people, such as ascetics and self-flagellators, purposely inflict suffering on themselves, and the purpose as conceived by them seems to be to gain liberation or salvation.

Other people, such as sadists and masochists, inflict suffering on others or on themselves, the purpose being to experience pleasure.

As Nietzsche says, "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger"; so the purpose suffering would be thought to serve in that understanding would be strength of character. Or like the Buddhists we might see the purpose of suffering as enabling us to come to understand the root causes and then transcend or overcome them.

An artist might see suffering as deepening her creative capacities. A sportsperson might see suffering as necessary to athletic cultivation: "no pain, no gain".

So much for purposely sought or cultivated suffering; for the rest we have to deal with the suffering that comes with mortally embodied being, which is dealt out, sometimes in consequence of self-created conditions, but very often not equally or justly according to desert, but seemingly arbitrarily according to luck,

So, if we are condemned to suffer in one way and degree or another, the question would seem to be as to what purpose we could understand this suffering to serve. In other words what positive outcomes could we imagine and even cause, to come out of suffering. That would seem to be as diverse a suite of possibilities as the individuals who suffer; that is as diverse as the degree of variation of human constitution allows.

Would you agree, from your experience, that what shatters people’s lives is the loss of the sense of connection with others, of having worth, of being held in esteem, more than material deprivation or physical illness? — Joshs

Yes, I think this can be very significant. There are others I've met for whom homelessness (despite all the deprivations) provides a sense of community and identity and a even project. And others for whom material deprivation directly led to feelings of worthlessness, shame and a loss of connection to their peers. I've often said that for anything you may say about homelessness, the opposite is also true. But I understand what you are saying and thanks for clarifying.

It's a bit like asking why questions as to why you want to do X, Y or Z, you end up saying I want to do X because I want to be happy or content, to ask why one wants to be happy is to ask a question whose answer cannot be provided - unless you substitute happiness for another, similar word.

As for the purpose of suffering? It's like the opposite of happiness, and we likely could not appreciate feeling good, if we did not know what it was like to feel bad, which includes suffering.

Ever considered that ‘suffering’ may be a goal rather than something to be avoided?

Think about it. What have you ever achieved in life that was of value that did not require some degree of ‘suffering’ … then think about the old adage of ‘the journey not the destination’.

What suffering are we taking about the end of life kind or the emotional kind ?