Anxiety Test
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
Anxiety Test - Description and methodology of the test
Most people start wondering about anxiety when something ordinary gets harder: a phone call, a night's sleep, a quiet afternoon. This anxiety test looks at those moments instead of asking how you feel in general. If you keep typing «do I have anxiety» into a search bar at night, the answers here give you something more concrete than a yes or a no.
What the test measures
Anxiety rarely stays in one place, so the questionnaire splits it into three scores. The first is worry: concerns that pile up, thoughts that go in circles after a decision is made and tension that starts before you reach the second line of a bill. The second is the body: a clenched jaw after a meeting, shallow breathing over ordinary messages, sleep that will not come and early waking with nothing to blame. The third is avoidance: calls you postpone, longer routes, written messages instead of conversations and plans you skip. Generalized anxiety is usually described through the first two, while avoidance shows what it is already costing you. Seven statements describe calm moments, such as muscles that loosen when you rest, so the score does not rise just because you answer quickly.
How to take it and read the result
Think about recent months and rate each of the 28 statements from never to very often. Go with your first answer, and most people finish in about eight minutes. The GAD-7 questions look at constant worry, restlessness, tension, poor sleep and avoidance. When you finish, you get:
- your overall anxiety level from 0 to 100, shown first;
- a low, moderate or high score for worry, body tension and avoidance;
- the area that leads in your answers;
- the specific situations that raised each score;
- how your worry and avoidance combine in everyday life.
The three scores are compared with each other, so a low one is useful too: it shows which side of anxiety barely touches you and where no effort is needed. Many people come back after a few weeks to see whether a holiday, a new job or simply a calmer month has changed the picture.
- Borkovec, T. D., Robinson, E., Pruzinsky, T., & DePree, J. A. (1983). Preliminary exploration of worry: Some characteristics and processes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21(1), 9-16.
- Barlow, D. H. (2002). Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
- Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Lowe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092-1097.
Updated: