PQI Stage 3

Please complete the questions below and then print them if you want them for your healthcare provider. After printing them, then have a look at the score. None of this data is collected on this website.

Chronic Pain causes physical and psychological stress. Please answer the questions by thinking about how you are affected in the past month. This information and your score is not stored or sent to anyone and will disappear immediately after you check your score.

The pain is there all the time or comes so often is bothers me a lot

I worry the pain will not go away or worry it will get worse someday

Pain makes it hard to pay attention to anything else, like my surroundings and people around me

I can't keep thoughts of pain away or I think about it often and have to push it away.

My pain causes me to have a pounding heart or nausea or trouble breathing or sweating

I avoid activities because I believe it makes my pain worse

I avoid going to places, meeting with people, interacting with other because of pain

My memory is affected by pain

The way I see myself has changed, I don't feel in control, capable, or strong anymore. And/Or Pain has changed the way I see the world - it feels like an unfriendly or dangerous place now.

I blame myself or someone else because my pain is not improving

I have strong negative feelings like fear or anger or guilt or shame because of the pain or my ability to function.

I have lost interest in activities that I used to enjoy because of the pain

I feel cut off or distant from other people because of my pain

I have trouble experiencing positive feelings. It's hard to feel happy or loving. Hard to find fun.

I have irritable behavior or angry outbursts or act aggressively because of my pain

I take too many risks or do things that can do me harm. The pain has made me reckless.

I am very cautious when it comes to doing things because I don't want to increase my pain

My body is very sensitive. Even a light touch causes me pain

I have difficulty concentrating or learning new things

I find it difficult falling asleep and/or wake often from pain

If your score is 31 or more, it means your alarm system is hyper aroused. Your alarm system is functioning like someone who has PTSD. 

Before any work can be done on chronic pain, we have to lower the alarm system. We have to fix your brain’s response to the terrible pain in your body. Too much alarm causes inflammation which increased pain and swelling in your body. Inflammation damages the body. 

High alarm causes the muscles to tense, which then causes more pain. Tense muscles lead to fascia sticking together – fascia pain and inflammation.

Start with Step 2.

Do the short chair yoga exercises that are on the bottom of the page – do at least 3 times per week in the day.

Do the evening QiGong at night as often as possible. You can find it in the middle of the page. More or less. 

Good luck with Step 1.

Judy