A catch-all term that describes any emotional pain that someone may be carrying.
A lot more painful that the common garden Samsonite matching luggage (unless it is dropped on you from a great height) but very similar in that it is hard to break. In fact - unreliable scientific tests have shown that both types of baggage need co-ordinated and dedicated effort from a team of close friends to get anywhere near cracking these cases - and even then, splinters are still visible for a very long time.
For some reason I have always been intrigued by the people cursed with this infliction - I don't know why, maybe I think i can help somehow - I've always been told that I am a good listener. Or maybe it's because I have had a taste of what it's like - That characteristic phobia of going down the same road twice (sometimes taken to the ridiculous) I knew my fears were stupid and irrational but that never made them any less real; the long nights sitting thinking "why me? why should I be the one burdened? I've done nothing to deserve it" and above all the loneliness - the total belief that you are the the only one who feels this way.
I was lucky, my pain was only caused by going out with girls carrying their own baggage (a rough ride but I have no regrets). Once I learnt that I managed to pull myself back up. But now I look back at it all, and I compare it to the pain of what some other people must be feeling. I know they have it worse, I know that what happened to me was chicken feed comparatively - but I suppose that is what makes emotional baggage what it is - It makes no difference how bad the event is, it still has the same effect - it still makes you believe that you have been taken to the edge of your tolerance. And it is this that truly hurts.