Here are few thoughts...

We tend to assume that physical suffering is worse, in an absolute way, than psychological suffering. But you and I both know a woman who is pretty poor (by our standards), but one of the happiest people we know. There are many narratives of people enduring terrible hardship physically, but without "suffering" in any deep sense. Now, that's a very high level of self-cultivation; very few of us can hope to reach that. But it shows, I think, how much of the suffering we experience is subjective, our opinions, as the Stoics would say.

I suffer a lot - and most is unnecessary. Levels of noise that most people wouldn't even notice are suffering to me. Part of that is the way I'm wired; part is training and habit. I don't know that I can change it - but I at least realize that it is my doing. The damned fireworks are data; my hating them is, on some level, my action.

Also, as you say, we live in a culture that tries to anesthetize everything. That's damned unhealthy. Because (as Buddhism teaches) suffering is one of the main reasons people look to grow.

Finally, while I believe it's important that I try to see how I increase my own suffering, I also need to try to realize that for anyone else, their suffering is absolutely and subjectively real. Not always easy; I have a friend who's a massive hypochondriac, that's a tough one for me. But I do believe we need to try cultivate compassion as we can, and that's based on empathy from our own suffering.