Non-clinical Self-assessment

Barrickman-Hannah Scale of Suffering^™

A plain-language tool to help you understand how much suffering you are experiencing, where it is coming from and how much it might be affecting everyday life.

Why this scale exists

People often adapt to difficult circumstances. A problem can become so familiar that it starts to feel normal, even when it is placing a serious burden on your health, security, relationships or sense of hope.

This test breaks suffering into several areas so you can look at each one separately. It can be useful for people living through severe hardship, people who may have adapted to difficult conditions and people with relatively comfortable lives who are unsure how much distress or disruption they are actually experiencing.

It is not meant to diagnose you, tell you how you should feel or decide whose suffering matters more. It is meant to help you put clearer language around what you are already experiencing and see whether your overall burden appears little, noticeable, significant, severe or extreme.

There are no right or wrong answers. Choose the response that most closely reflects your actual experience, even if you think someone else has it worse or better.

Medical and clinical disclaimer This is not a medical, psychological or clinical assessment. Its creator is not a doctor, scientist or educator and provides this free online test only as a self-assessment tool to help users better understand where they currently fall on the Barrickman-Hannah Scale of Suffering. It must not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis, treatment or emergency care.

Privacy notice This page does not transmit, save or retain your answers. Your responses exist only in the currently open page and are normally discarded when the page is closed or reloaded. Your browser may preserve form entries or restore tabs according to its own settings. If privacy is a concern to you, use a private browsing window on a non-shared device. A PDF is created only when you choose to save one through your browser.

0 of 62 answered 0%

Part I

Immediate Safety Screen

Answer each question using the timeframe stated in that question. Some questions concern your situation right now, while others ask about the recent past.

Please note: Answering “No” to any or every question in the immediate safety section does not imply or guarantee that you are psychologically or physically safe. This section provides only a broad screening based entirely on the information you enter. Your personal safety always takes priority. If you believe the result is incorrect or feel that you or someone else may be in danger, contact an emergency responder immediately.

Response scale

Understanding Your Current Suffering

The gray boxes below explain what each number means. For every question that follows, choose the number from 0 to 5 that comes closest to your experience during the past 30 days.

0None

1Slight

2Mild

3Moderate

4Severe

5Extreme

Part III

How Much This Interferes With Everyday Life

Suffering and impairment are related but not identical. Rate the effect of your circumstances during the past 30 days.

How this test works

What the scale measures

The Barrickman-Hannah Scale of Suffering looks at suffering across seven areas of life: physical health, mental and emotional well-being, living conditions, money and basic needs, social connection, hope and control over the future and close relationships.

The scale was created to help people recognize suffering they may have adapted to, minimized or struggled to explain. It can also help people who live relatively comfortable lives see that their suffering may be limited, concentrated in one area or lower than they assumed.

The test is not meant to make moral comparisons between people or decide whose suffering matters more. It gives each person a structured way to examine their own circumstances.

How the scores are calculated

Each scored question is answered from 0 to 5. The answers within each area are added together, then converted to a score from 0 to 10. The average intensity score is the average of all seven area scores.

The test does not rely on that average alone. It also looks at how many areas fall within the severe or extreme range, which area scored highest and how much your circumstances interfere with everyday life. This matters because one low-scoring area can lower the average even when several other areas are severe.

How safety answers are handled

The immediate safety section is handled separately from the numerical score. A possible safety concern is not cancelled out by a low average or by “No” answers to other safety questions.

What the ranges mean

The result ranges are intended to make the scores easier to understand. They are descriptive, not clinical diagnoses, and have not been established through formal medical or scientific validation.

This tool is still being refined. Questions, examples, scoring and result language may change as problems are identified and the scale becomes clearer and more useful.

Transparency

The original Barrickman-Hannah Scale of Suffering was created by Namu Williams. Refinement of the questions, development of the scoring structure and underlying methodology and the HTML/CSS/JavaScript coding for this webpage were completed by Namu Williams with assistance from ChatGPT.