2022/1/12 A pain in the neck is such an apt expression. It seems to have fallen away in favor of more sexual or scatological metaphors, that gives it more of an impact I think, making the meaning fresh again, that or making the speaker seem quaint. Pain has the similar qualities of being disruptive and impossible to continuously ignore. It is slightly more than annoying and especially when it is in your neck it tends to impact everything else you are trying to do. At some point the phrase started with “is like”, but, as tends to happen with language, it got shorter over time. When you have a literal pain in the neck, as I am experiencing as I write this, the freedom you are used to, however limited it may be to begin with, becomes even more limited. Your choices diminish. You desires shift. A focus remains on the pain. Problems that are a metaphorical pain in the neck also reduce your freedom and make demands on your mind. If you address them they don't resolve cleanly. They are persistent. With any pain though, actual or metaphorical, some perspective usually makes it quite a bit better.