Mental health self-assessment 100 questions

There is no publicly disseminated set of "100 Mental Health Self-Assessment Questions" that can be directly used as a basis for diagnosing mental illness. It is essentially a reference tool for ordinary people to quickly screen for recent abnormalities in their mood and state. The results are for reference only and cannot be used as a diagnosis.

In the five years I have been doing consulting, I have seen at least more than 300 people come to me with the results of this set of questions. As soon as I sat down, they said in a panic, "I have been diagnosed with severe depression. Is it hopeless?" What impressed me most was a junior boy who stayed up all night in the dormitory to study this set of questions. After filling in the results, he squatted on the balcony and cried for half the night. He didn't even dare to take the final exam the next day. When he came to do the evaluation, he found out that he had an acute stress reaction after working on his graduation thesis and going for interviews for half a month. He adjusted his schedule for a week and got over it. He was purely frightened by the "sickness advice" under the test results.

The various "Mental Health Self-Assessment 100 Questions" currently uploaded on the Internet are essentially adapted from the "90-Item Symptom List (SCL-90)" commonly used in psychiatric clinical practice, with an additional 10 questions focusing on recent stress levels and social support. The item design itself is clinically based and is not made up by netizens. It's just that many people who spread the word deliberately blur "screening" into "diagnosis" to gain attention and traffic, which is why so many mistakes have been made.

Regarding the actual function of this set of questions, consultants from different schools have quite different opinions. Colleagues who do CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) around me actually like to use it. After all, each question is a very specific description of the recent state - such as "Have you often forgotten things in the past week?" "Do you always feel that you have unexplainable pain in your body?" Dimensions such as obsessive-compulsiveness, anxiety, and depression can quickly help the client locate the problem, and can even be used as a reference in the adjustment process: for example, if the test is adjusted again after a month, and the score drops, it is a real improvement, which is much more intuitive than the empty "I think I am much better." However, colleagues with a psychodynamic orientation feel that the role of this set of questions is very limited. For example, if the "Interpersonal Sensitivity" item also scores high, some people have just changed to a new environment and are temporarily unable to adapt. Some people have a pleasing personality formed by being belittled by their parents since childhood and have just hit the trigger point. The motivations behind it are so different that you can't touch the core issue just by looking at the scores.

Oh, by the way, if you really want to take the test, don’t take the wild questions that require you to spend 9.9 yuan to read a detailed report after filling them out. The beginning of the formal self-test questions will definitely be marked “for screening only, not for diagnosis”, and the descriptions of all questions have a clear time range (mostly the last 1-2 weeks), and you will not be asked ambiguous questions such as “Are you often unhappy?” When taking the test, don't fill it in with the preset "Will I be sick?", just choose whatever state you are in. If you have just finished arguing with your partner or just been scolded by the boss, it is best to wait for two or three days before taking the test, otherwise the result will most likely be high, and you will just scare yourself. I had an Internet operator come to visit me before, and I asked her to fill in the 100 questions of the regular adapted version. When she filled it out, she complained that she had no other problems recently except for constant stomachache. The result was that her somatization score was almost full, and she realized that she had not slept for 5 hours a day for the past three months while rushing for sales. Those stomachaches, migraines, and forgetfulness were not caused by eating too much takeout, but because the body was protesting under pressure.

If your scores in certain dimensions are obviously high, don’t panic. First, take a look at how long this state lasts: if it’s only three or four days, it’s most likely due to mood swings caused by recent emergencies. A good night’s sleep and a good meal with friends will most likely help you recover.； If it has been more than 2 weeks, and it has affected normal eating, sleeping, work or study - for example, I used to love going out with friends, but now I can't even leave the house. I used to have a good appetite, but now I am not hungry even if I don't eat. Then don't hesitate, either talk to a regular psychological counselor, or go to a psychiatric department for a comprehensive evaluation, which is much more useful than just thinking about the test results on your own. It doesn’t matter if you really can’t find reliable questions. If you go to the psychology department of a public hospital, the nurse station usually has a free formal version that you can fill in, which is much more reliable than the random questions on the Internet.

To put it bluntly, these 100 questions are, to put it bluntly, an emotional thermometer. If your temperature is high, you will have to go to the hospital to see if you have a cold or inflammation. You can't judge yourself as "seriously ill" just by holding a thermometer, right? Its biggest role is actually to help you withdraw from the numbness day after day, and notice "Oh, I seem to be too tired recently, it's time to take care of my emotions." Being able to do this is enough.