What is Your Pain Threshold?

Many of us have been asked the question, on a scale of one to ten how do you rate your pain? What usually happens is that you think if you answer too high they will think you can't handle pain and if you answer too low they will wonder why you are in the doctor's office. So you give them a number in the middle: 4, 5 or six.

You are then treated correspondingly with everyone else who has also answered with that number.

I have no proof but I would bet the farm that most people do answer with one of those middle numbers. And sadly most people do not get the correct pain treatment. We all have a different sensitivity to pain. How do I know this? I have had severe chronic pain for most of my life.

My pain cannot be put on a one to ten chart. I am very aware of pain and very sensitive to people when they talk about their pain. Some people simply cannot tolerate pain while others seem to thrive with it.

We live in a society that does not understand an individual's pain. A man is supposed to tolerate more pain than a woman. But a woman is supposed to go through labor and child birth without complaining. That does not make sense to me. We tell young boys to act like a man and grown men to stop being a baby. We are not told to act like ourselves.

We each have our own individual pain threshold. It is important that we understand what that threshold is. I happen to have a higher pain threshold which I probably developed over my years with chronic pain. I never give a number to the medical personnel. My present pain is either tolerable or intolerable and I want it treated that way.

There are people with a low tolerance to pain and there is no shame to this. You are not less of a person. Your body chemistry works differently from other people. You should not be given the same treatment for your pain as I am. When it comes to pain, one size does not fit all; or one's number is not the same as the next person's.

Pain is personal and we cannot control how we react to it. We can; however, learn to deal with it. Once we understand what our individual pain threshold is, we can then get the proper treatment for pain. Your medical provider will know how to care for you when you undergo procedures and you will get the correct aftercare.

You will most likely encounter some opposition when you try to explain your pain threshold instead of giving a number to describe your pain. However, be firm and tell the questioner you are an individual and not a number. Be honest if you have a low threshold and request extra care for pain. If you are more tolerant to pain but having increased pain, explain it that way.

The medical community has many different ways of treating us when we are in pain. We should not allow them to put us in a category based on an average to a number system. Get the care you deserve by understanding your pain threshold.