Research has shown that pain is a deeply personal experience, shaped by many factors across your life — and those factors can be very different from one person to the next.

This interactive tool is based on the Protectometer — a metaphor that helps make sense of the complex biology underpinning pain and other protective responses like fatigue, stiffness, and sensitivity.

We know that your body is constantly weighing up cues of danger and safety, deciding when to turn protection up or down.

We call these DIMs (Danger In Me) and SIMs (Safety In Me).

How to use the tool

Use the sliders below to reflect how things are going in your world right now:

• If a factor (like your environment or general health) feels more threatening or uncertain overall, move the slider up.

• If that factor feels safe or supportive overall, move the slider down.

As you do this, the coloured 'protect by pain' bar will change, demonstrating how your body’s current protective state may be influenced by these factors — not as a diagnosis or score, but as a way to explore how these influences can shape your experience.

Take your time. Reflect. See what changes.

This is about understanding your story — and discovering what helps you feel safer.

About uncertainty

There’s always a degree of uncertainty in our lives — it shifts from minute to minute — and it’s natural for our symptoms (like pain, fatigue or stiffness) to fluctuate with it.

If you’re feeling uncertain about what’s going on in your world right now — maybe around your diagnosis, treatment, recovery, or life in general — try adjusting the uncertainty dial in the top left corner.

You may notice that when uncertainty is high, symptoms feel more variable.

As you explore the Protectometer and start to find strategies that tilt the balance toward more SIMs, you might see that your sense of uncertainty begins to settle too.

Take your time. Reflect. See what changes.

This is about understanding your story — and discovering what helps you feel safer.

The Protectometer Handbook is a great resource to start building a plan around increasing SIMs, altering or diminishing DIMs, and gaining control of your recovery. You can check the Protectometer and our other handbooks (Knee and Back) in our store here: