Anxiety And Depression

You doctor, if he or she is like most others, will be very wary of your using an online depression test to self diagnose, and for good reason. These types of tests can of course be very useful, but not if they are done instead of seeing your doctor! So by all means use them, but do realise that your symptoms may be because of medical reasons, or even because of other psychological conditions.

The gold standard for depression testing used to be the Beck Depression Inventory, named after Aaron T Beck, developer of cognitive behavior therapy, a therapy that is now under attack with claims it is no more effective than placebo.

A BETTER TEST FOR DEPRESSION

The Lifeworks Joy Inventory is a preferred test for depression because in addition to being highly accurate, it begins to move the client toward an expectation of good results from therapy. While the BDI was very negative (eg getting the client to rate the statement “I feel sad most of the time”) the Lifeworks Joy Inventory has positive statements which the client is asked to rate (eg “I enjoy my sexuality”).

Both clients and clinicians can be confident of using the Lifeworks Joy Inventory because it has correlated well not only with the BDI, but with the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and each client’s own Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS)

As well as being highly accurate, the Lifeworks Joy Inventory has another advantage: it is completely free to use and may be distributed freely as well. Designed as a gift to the field of mental health, it was hoped that more people would then benefit from free and easy access to quality testing.

So if you believe you or a loved one may be suffering from depression, you’ll find a link below to an interactive online test that will not only give you a depression rating and explain its meaning, but will also spell out what else you need to do in order to get a correct diagnosis.

Extreme scores in depression testing, whether very high or very low, are also cause for concern. Below 4 could suggest not only the most severe depression, but also could suggest exaggeration, or even indicate histrionic or borderline personality disorders. Over 50 could indicate denial of depression, or “faking it”, a life approach which is not considered adaptive and which has been strongly correlated with increasing rates of psychological disorder.

WHEN YOU’VE GOT YOUR TEST RESULT

Even if your test results appear to be “normal”, if you still suspect that you may be depressed, you should certainly still see your doctor because it’s neither normal nor healthy to feel that life is significantly unsatisfying. Your doctor will do a thorough physical examination and ask a host of questions about your lifestyle etc to determine if there’s any medical problem.

Once you have a proper diagnosis of depression you can embark on treatment knowing that any other medical issues have also been identified and will also be treated.

Please don’t believe any health professional or web site which tells you that depression in incurable, or takes a long time to cure, or that you’ll have to learn to live with it. All of those opinions have been well and truly discredited thanks to Australian research which shows depression can usually be completely cured within days and without drugs.

Effective treatment must always involve careful investigation and moderation of 17 lifestyle factors that are known to cause depression or aid in the development of depression, and also the elimination of unconscious thinking patterns (thoughts and feelings) which serve to damp down normal brain function.

If you’re eating food that sustains you properly, if you’re getting out and about and engaging with people whom you like and respect, if you’re active through the day, sleeping well at night, contented in your relationships, and moving toward goals that are meaningful for you, then you can say goodbye to depression and hello to a rich and satifying life. That is the goal of therapy.