There is a difference between suffering and discomfort. Discomfort is just pain in the moment. But suffering is when that pain is weighed down by mental stories, destructive patterns, painful emotional baggage, blame and shame.
Suffering is when you go through the same painful cycle again and again without the ability to break free from it. Suffering is stuckness. Suffering is indulging in repetitive addictive behaviour without any change or forward progress. It includes the self-loathing and physical pain you endure because of the addiction. Suffering is all the mental stories about our bad patterns and the people that trigger it. Suffering is the blame, the hidden shame, and the unconscious traumas that are driving us.
Discomfort is different.
Discomfort is when you abstain from the addiction but experience physical withdrawal. Discomfort is when you opt out of the anger cycle and choose instead to feel the fire inside. Discomfort is when you no longer loop through the mental chatter but feel the grief underneath. Discomfort is when you face the buried traumas. Yes, you are experiencing pain—sometimes immense levels of emotional and physical pain—but you are no longer suffering. You are no longer in the loop of self-destruction. You are no longer in the grip of the pattern.
If we want to be free of suffering we need to endure some discomfort. To be free of the suffering we need to uncover, accept and feel the pain.