I've seen things that really should not have place in 21st century anno bastardi (levels 9 and 10) and also have experienced chronic sickness that allowed me to observe clear levels of influence of pain on my daily activities (levels 0-8). Based on both of these unpleasant experiences, I put together the below scale which is based on precise specifications of what a man can do, what a man cannot do and what the pain will force a man to do at each given level.

  1. No pain.
  2. Very light pain: you forget about it if you are focused on anything else.
  3. Light pain: you cannot just forget about it but it has zero to unnoticeable influence on your focus and physical performance.
  4. Moderate pain: you are still able to perform all activities but speed and accuracy is visibly affected, especially in case of more demanding activities.
  5. Strong pain: actions requiring full focus or physically challenging are impossible, actions requiring medium or little focus or physical coordination can be performed but with very significantly affected speed and accuracy. You sit or lay down whenever idle.
  6. Very strong pain: you are only able to perform actions requiring very little focus or only passive ones like watching or listening. You very strongly need to sit or lay down and rest, but you are able to walk if really needed.
  7. Severe pain: you are able to stand only for very short periods, it's very difficult to focus even on passive activities (watching or listening) for more than just a few minutes, you whine from time to time or tighten your muscles strongly to control the pain. Generally you are unable to walk unless assisted and even then only for very short distances and with very frequent stops. If necessary, you are able to crawl slowly.
  8. Extreme pain: you moan/whine most of the time and have your muscles permanently tightened or you constantly move them rhythmically to stop convulsions. All your focus is on controlling the pain. Walking is impossible, some people are still able to crawl slowly if absolutely necessary.
  9. Unmanageable pain: your limbs are in total convulsion, you scream all the time until your throat fills with blood. You are unable to think about anything other than the pain, but at least in the short term you will not amputate the painful limb nor commit suicide in hope that the pain will eventually decrease.
  10. Professionally induced pain or an extremely painful medical condition (pancreatic cancer+) : you will amputate the painful limb or commit suicide at the nearest opportunity to stop the pain, but you will not agree to subject your family nor close ones to a similar torture in exchange for your torture to stop.
  11. Professionally induced pain by a senior interrogator: you will right away allow your family and close ones to be tortured the same way you are being currently tortured just to stop your pain.

Copyright 2025 Piotr Morgwai Kotarbiński, licensed under CC BY 4.0.