Re: The Goldberg Depression Test
by Paralith on February 19th, 2011, 3:02 pm
I scored a 24. Which I think may be a representative average for me. Sometimes I'm worse, sometimes I'm better. Sometimes I'm both, where I'm certainly aware of how dismally I feel, but I'm also aware that the reality of the situation doesn't really warrant such a negative reaction. In the past year or so I have been seeing a school provided counselor, more regularly during the spring semester last year, and these days just when I feel like I need it. She has given me some tools to help me deal with my stress and anxiety on my own, which is why I haven't been seeing her as regularly anymore.
I like how the beginning of the test says, use this to see if you need further professional help, or to track your moods. Everybody has bad days. But perhaps you have more - or less! Than you think you do. And simple awareness (a la mindfulness) of what you're feeling is, I think, a step forward in itself.
tess, I think the point of this test is to help people get a handle on their own state of mind and see if it seems advisable to take the next step. It's not like the instructions read, "If you score X or higher, get yourself on antidepressants post haste." My results came with text saying that I appear to have some symptoms associated with depressive disorders and that I might benefit from seeing a professional to get a real diagnosis. Which sounds perfectly reasonable to me.