Am I going crazy?
It’s a phrase we’ve all uttered to ourselves from time to time, but now a new Web site helps you figure it out for sure. Check out www.sanityscore.com, which offers a simple online quiz designed to assess aspects of your mental health, including your risk for depression, anxiety and other emotional disorders.
The sanity quiz was designed by Dr. John Grohol, the psychologist who created PsychCentral , one of the best online mental health resources I’ve come across. Still under development, his sanity test is based on several scientifically validated mental health assessments, and it asks the questions that a mental health professional might ask about mood and eating and sleeping habits. Your score is a numerical expression of your overall emotional health, says Dr. Grohol.
It’s worth noting that there’s no officially sanctioned test from the mental health community for measuring one’s sanity, so you shouldn’t make important health decisions based on these results. Still, I think it’s worth checking out not only for insight into your state of mind, but because it may prompt an overdue discussion with your doctor.
You have to fill out an anonymous registration form before you start, and the quiz takes about 15 minutes to complete. Any score above 150 indicates significant distress in your life, according to Dr. Grohol. While a high score doesn’t mean you’re crazy, it may suggest that you should seek professional advice to help sort out your mental health concerns.
A score under 50 suggests there is little distress your life, says Dr. Grohol, while scores between 50 and 150 may indicate a need to focus more on your mental health.
I admit that I was a bit wary about taking the quiz, but I’m relieved to report that my score of 40 was low enough to qualify me as sane. But the test tells me I have some issues, and I was surprised at how accurate it seemed to be in identifying my own areas of mental stress.
If you don’t want to take 15 minutes to find out if you’re sane, PsychCentral offers a shorter assessment to help you decide whether you might need therapy. This quiz won’t give you the same level of self-awareness as the longer test, but it will at least get you thinking about your mental health, an area too often neglected by most of us.
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From 1 to 25 of 43 Comments
Perfectly awful idea. A self-selected group with a predisposition to think of itself as flawed will be rewarded with a high score. The more introspective and solopsistic the subject, the more problematic the test result. If you feel the need to take the test, find a therapist.
— Barry BlitsteinDoes it have questions about having enough free time on one’s hands to take 15 minutes for this?
Does asking that question mean I “have issues?”
— diI scored a 24. I’ll go back into my coma now. Wake me in a few months, when my weight is down to what it was when I was 20, OK?
— Matt BThis seems like a useful tool to me. I’m going to post a link to it on my blog, and start suggesting it to friends and business clients.
— John S WrenThis is interesting. I scored a 53, which I guess means I have some minor issues. How could I not, I’m transitioning to a new job and moving in the next two weeks (just across town, but it’s still pretty stressful!) :). On the other hand, my friends say they have never seen me happier, albeit a bit frazzled. Other people’s perceptions of your attitude and health are often more accurate than your own, but there were no questions about what your friends or family think.
— Mrs. DGreat. Just the questions made me feel better. Thanks.
— Joan HubbsMany of the questions are vague or misleading. For example:
Do I avoid situations that remind me of traumatic events? Well, yeah… I avoid not wearing a helmet on motor scooters because of an accident I was in where I wasn’t wearing one. Does that really mean I have post-traumatic stress– or that I’m a human who learns from her mistakes?
Do I eat differently than I used to? Yeah, I’ve recently switched to an organic diet and eat less meat. SanityScore.com told me I may have an eating disorder. Hmmm.
That was a complete waste of time, says this mildly nuts person. Back to work now!
— tenspeedsfWhat is achieved by providing a person with her body mass index right in the middle of the sanity score report? Though perhaps I’m too nuts for my questions to count: apparently I’m a 127. Be afraid!
— CelineDarn. Test says I’m in good mental health except I think I’m Elvis. Well, thank you very much.
— Burton Ernyi think it was pretty accurate considering some of the questions were a little blah! overall a good one considering the amount of crazy things happening every day!
— celestetara“While a high score doesn’t mean you’re crazy…”
Of course it’s important for the author to include this disclaimer, because we still live in a society with a heavy stigma against mental illness. (As a ‘crazy’ person who conceals her illness from her university colleagues while teaching two classes, conducting international research, and publishing articles, this is a major bone of contention for me.)
My score is a 28. Maybe I should send GlaxoSmith a nice thank you note.
— CrankyEaterI’m a 2. Is that bad?
— Margaret CleavesThe psych test relies on self-reporting. That means two things you have to think about in interpreting your results: 1) You know how you chose to interpret and answer each question. So you know the limits of measurement reliability for each question. The assessment is only valid in the qualitative summary of the aggregate score, unless you took the test as a joke. To a lesser degree there may be limited validity in the measurement of the specific mental health trends. 2) We’re living in a high inequality society. Therefore, most people (but not all) are under various forms of stress. I hypothesize that most people are taking the test partially to see what the psychologists are concerned with in our social context, and partially just to give themselves a moment’s reflection on how they’re coping. Why not?
— Blanche PoubelleWhat bothers me is the idea that an NYT writer would be so ignorant as to say that a high test score doesn’t mean you’re “crazy.” The word has no meaning in this context, and the use of it simply adds to the stigma someone else spoke about above in this thread. As the mother of a mentally ill child, spouse to someone with depression and person with a mood disorder, I resent this, particularly since it suggests lazy thinking and needlessly imprecise use of language.
Sure, if you’re delusional or psychotic, you may be what society considers “crazy,” but if you’re present enough to take a test, I doubt you are. Throwing out that red herring muddies the waters irredeemably. For shame, NYT copy editors!
— Annoyed Health JournalistThis test is about as insightful as my therapist who can’t decide what my diagnosis is at $150 an hour. Emme was right, bring back ECT and lobotomies. Professional psychology has become delusional in doping up adults, kids–in one year I was ‘titrated’ on 30 different meds. THere’s 2 choices, function and live or be dysfunctional and be on the street. We’ve no middle ground anymore…and no test can calculate how that’s effecting millions of mentall ill.
— regnisJust like any other online quiz, it was fun and meaningless. It says I have bipolar, but I don’t think I do. DO I? DO I?? (stop staring at me)
— BeckySounds like fun. Do you get to divide the final score by the number of split personalities you are sharing your brain with?
It might be a useful tool for leaking information to the lay public about what functional issues are caused by mental illness.
— AmyWell, I scored a solid 124. Jesus, what am I supposed to do with nothing but safety razors in the house? Lest anyone feel concerned, not to worry, I probably had to drop 20 or 30 points to have the energy and willpower to take this test—so I must be entering my manic phase. Now, where is that post office?
Have a nice day.
— Mason MyattI’m with Annoyed Health Journalist. You should stay away from words like “crazy” and “nuts.”
— ChrisSeems like harmless fun; it reminds me a bit of the various personality evaluations offered by popular websites. As for the Annoyed health journalists, well, I think frank discussions of mental health have become so commonplace as to have taken the stigma out of words like ‘nuts’. Call me crazy, but doesn’t everyone see a shrink nowadays?
— JamesInteresting.Although a score of 12 seems to suggest a certain amount of aloofness Who cares.
— NotcrazyyetWhy quibble over testing questions? This post and
— Psychnurseall comments were more than enough to convince me that we all really are neurotic…we’re just not all psychotic… Uh-oh, my bad, now on to pyschoses; back to the test!
Smile! People! Ask yourself, “What is normal?” before you decide what is crazy.
Ah good to know at 23 I am considered sane!!! I have my doubts though because every time anyone says “are you crazy?” I have got used to saying yes because that makes people go speechless. Hmmm, interesting.
I agree with Psychnurse - one should decide what is normal before deciding what is crazy. For eg. when we overwork, that is normal I guess by the world standards, but is it necessarily sane? Its all about striking the balance that is right for you, your family and circumstances.
If you dont know how to strike the balance… you might read a bit on teachings of the Buddha. That might help you get things in perspective.
— NilookaI wasn’t crazy enough to take the test, but was crazy enough to read everyone else’s comments. I guess that should make me mid-range!
— ahopBut the score is a measure of non-sanity, not sanity.
Also, you’ll want to have cookies enabled when you log in to the test, or you will not be able to save your results. It should tell you that.
I was honest, and got a 19 (not saved).
— gudguy