Difficulty Ranking Pain Severity

Does anyone else have a lot of trouble using pain scales or otherwise ranking the severity of symptoms? I don't really know why, but I've always had trouble being able to gage and express "how bad" something feels or "what type" of pain it is. It doesn't help that my pain tolerance seems to be extremely high for some types of pain / some of the time and extremely low with other types / during other times. I have a history of derealization/depersonalization including sometimes feeling numb in response to physical injury, so I suspect that plays some role in it, but it's something I struggle with even when experiencing no symptoms of dissociation otherwise.

Your answer

Crow

2y ago

Definitely.. i feel like i have different factors that i need to be able to log when i scale my pain??? Idk like- sometimes i cant just say it hurts 4/10, or “it hurts enough to be annoying but can be ignored”. Like theres something more specific. Yes i can ignore it, yes its not impeding my life, but my god its there constantly, it hurts every time i do x y z so its noticeable. Idk.. personally sometimes the scales work ok for me and some days its like no no this is not specific enough this doesnt say it all and the dr isnt gonna understand that theres something else going on other than ‘annoying but not limiting’ etc

Jay5

2y ago

Pain scales are the worst! So hard to use. Especially the other day they gave me a rate your health on a scale of 0-100….like what?! Is 100 dead like what does 50 look like? Cuz I feel half alive? I was so confused what to put down

Fake

2y ago

Yeah, I get asked about pain scales so much and I never know what to say. I remember going into a clinic for pain so bad I could barely get out of bed and when they asked I still told them 3/10 because I figured it could be worse.

courtnorg

2y ago

Ya I also have a hard time with the pain scales. The way I rate my pain is by thinking about my worst pain I have ever had and then compare it to the pain I am in now. If my pain is way less it's a 1-3. The pain is mild it's a 1-5. If the pain is getting bad 6-8. If the pain is out of hand 9 and if it's equal to the worsted pain I have ever had it's a 10.

Ugo.Iba

2y ago

Have you read into alexithymia?

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