sometimes suffering is just suffering... ...it only hurts
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger", "the north wind made the Vikings", etc, are just reminders that struggle and discomfort are good fertilizers for personal growth. But there are types of suffering that make you weaker and destroy you - you are right.
It's the same with inspiration - hard times teach you real things and make you a better poet or writer. But extreme poverty, being chronically afraid of starvation every day, normally destroys inspiration and leads a person to moral degradation. Just finished this book - it's right about this: a poet decided to wage war against the cult of money and ended up becoming an impoverished neurotic who couldn't write poetry.
living on my own pace
Many of us dream about this...