prove our pain....there are no 'standards' for pain, it's subjective. Your pain isn't MY pain and I may describe my pain better or worse than you do.

For comparison, look at how cancers are 'staged'. There are categories and sub-categories for each type. Cancers can be put in 'boxes' so to speak, so far, I've seen little 'medical' categorizing at all regarding pain.

Judging pain and pain levels is more akin to judging dog shows...best of breed-where each different breed is compared it that breed's standard. All very subjective. Pains don't even have type 'standards'. Thus OUR vocabularies describing it vary quite widely.

Taking it a step further, how do WE as patients advocate for the consistent articulation of pain[s], [thus weeding out the abusers], and encourage such 'whole body' approaches? I would think that educating those near us, then the wider public, while working with teh medical community, individually and as a whole, to be more clear on pain and it's managements. Right now approaches appear to be fragmented and un-connected. IMHO - j