such as the idea that pain is neither good nor bad, but I know from experience that I can classify it on that scale.
Something is lost in your translation, because I explicitly separated good and bad pain and defined them.
The loss of a child is probably the worst kind of emotional trauma (for most parents) that there could be I guess. There is no full recovery from it I assume, as it would always lay heavy. I have a couple of friends who have lost children and there is always a daily reminder for them.
They are really careful with painkillers here - hardly any strong stuff and when there is, they give the bare minimum amount of tablets.