Counting backwards from ten

In nursing, pain is often self-assessed on a scale from one to ten. One of our teachers, in nursing school, she had us all put up our hands, and she counted backwards from ten, asking us to drop our hands when that level of pain would be tolerable. There were only two hands still up when she said her final number. Mine was one of them.

She was, of course, talking about physical pain. Something that can be cured with a pill.

We don't have a pill for emotional pain. But imagine if we did, at what point, counting backwards from ten, would your hand drop to grab one?