Periodic reminder that “rate your pain on a scale from 1 to 10" is bullshit without reference points. People with chronic pain, tough guys, people with intense periods, and people who struggle with interoception all struggle when the endpoints are nebulous.
Let me introduce you to the DVPRS: https://www.va.gov/WHOLEHEALTHLIBRARY/docs/Defense-and-Veterans-Pain-Rating-Scale.pdf
It even works if you substitute pain for general impact. If you're asked to rate a symptom on a scale from 1 to 10, this works too.
0 = No pain
1 = Hardly notice pain
2 = Notice pain, does not interfere with activities
3 = Sometimes distracts me
4 = Distracts me, can do usual activities
5 = Interrupts some activities
6 = Hardto ignore, avoid usual activities
7 = Focus of attention, prevents doing daily activities
8 = Awful, hard to do anything
9 = Can’t bear the pain, unable to do anything
10 = As bad as it could be, nothing else matters
10 is still pretty subjective there, but "nothing else matters" is clear enough, and really 9 or 10 isn't really a big difference in how much it matters clinically. (It tells the clinician if an intervention helps though)
