Self-Rating Anxiety Scale
A commonly used scale for self-assessing anxiety is the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) scale. It’s a brief, widely recognized tool designed to assess the severity of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) can help increase self-awareness and encourage individuals to seek support if they notice significant anxiety symptoms.
Quick and Easy: It’s short, taking just a few minutes to complete, making it accessible for self-assessment.
Commonly Used: It’s a widely accepted tool, often used by clinicians to assess the severity of anxiety in their patients.
Helps Monitor Anxiety: The GAD-7 can track changes in anxiety symptoms over time, helping individuals and healthcare providers gauge progress.
Non-diagnostic: It’s not meant to diagnose but can guide whether further professional evaluation or treatment is necessary.
The GAD-7 consists of 7 questions, with respondents rating how often they’ve experienced each symptom in the past two weeks. The possible responses are:
Not at all (0 points)
Several days (1 point)
More than half the days (2 points)
Nearly every day (3 points)
The 7 questions are:
Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge
Not being able to stop or control worrying
Worrying too much about different things
Trouble relaxing
Being so restless that it’s hard to sit still
Becoming easily annoyed or irritable
Feeling afraid as if something awful might happen
Scoring:
Add up the points for each of the 7 items:
0–4: Minimal anxiety
5–9: Mild anxiety
10–14: Moderate anxiety
15–21: Severe anxiety