Over exaggeration when we convey something painful?

The use of hyperbole is used usually to attract attention or to try to make people laugh.

i think we all do this to some degree….i know im a drama queen if something ‘hurts’ ...especially if my other half does it lol

Emphasis. If you are in any doubt that this is the answer to your question, I will kill all of the wild goats in the Himalayas to prove it to you.

@colliedog….funny…BUT…if you did that, what would the herders do for uh…“companionship” ?

Maybe to make certain that others understand just how serious the injury is? It always seems that our pain is never fully recognized or understood. If, by telling exactly what is involved and having it discounted by 20%, perhaps by embellishing 20%, we might have a chance of the actual level of our pain being noticed?
Just a guess!

That’s sheep colliedog! Not goats.

That question really bowled me over like I was hit by lightening. Brilliant!

@Blackknight999
what sparked my question was a guy who said he was bit by a snake and he said the pain was so bad as if it were hit with a sledgehammer, I mean who the hell hits their hand with a sledgehammer? is that even possible???...lol

@POLICE Glad we don’t/didn’t treat our evidence in the same way! lol ‘Well it was like this judge. The guy came at me like a bull in a china shop. I acted like lightening and felled him down in one like I was chopping a tree’

We use it as emphasis!!!!

@Blackknight999
Love it!!!

Lol. Because the truth hurts as much as getting your tongue stuck on a metal fence in winter! (Not that I’ve done that before, but yes, the world is full of idiots who HAVE done that! Call it “Mother Nature’s way of getting rid of the dumb ones.” Lol.)

I think the real reason why people exaggerate things is to add interest and “drama” to what they say——the exaggeration actually makes the pain they feel not as bad as it is. It’s the same thing when people “rationalize” their mistakes to make them more acceptable to them. Eg., “I shouldn’t have cut in front of that other driver, but if I didn’t do that I would have been late picking up my child at school.” Sigh, people have all sort of stupid reasons to explain and describe their actions. Even the drama queens. Lol. ;)