A Tool for Clarifying Feelings

Issue # 0007

If you’ve ever sought medical care for significant pain, you’re probably familiar with a pain scale. A medical professional may have asked you, “On a scale from one to ten, one being no pain and ten being unbearable pain, how bad is your pain?” Of course there is no objective standard for pain, meaning what’s an eight for one person may be a five for someone else. That’s why many medical providers provide a series of facial expressions along with the scale. Yet, once you establish your pain on the scale, the direction (worsening or lessening) of your pain can be assessed; and with each report, more specific assessments about your pain can be made. The pain scale provides valuable information because it communicates something as abstract and intangible as physical pain into more concrete and tangible information that can be more easily and accurately addressed.