Mental Health Assessment

It scores your answers using the PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) for depression symptoms and the GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) for anxiety symptoms — two widely used, published self-report screening questionnaires, not something invented for this site. Each of the 9 PHQ-9 items and 7 GAD-7 items is scored 0-3 based on how often it bothered you over the last 2 weeks, and the items are simply summed for each total.

No. PHQ-9 and GAD-7 are screening tools designed to measure symptom severity, not diagnostic instruments. A high score doesn't by itself mean you have depression or an anxiety disorder, and a low score doesn't rule either out — only a clinician who can assess your full history, duration of symptoms, and other health factors can diagnose a mental health condition.

PHQ-9's ninth question asks specifically about thoughts of being better off dead or of hurting yourself. Standard scoring practice treats any positive answer to this item as worth acting on immediately, regardless of your overall total — so this calculator checks it independently and shows a safety message with crisis resources whenever it's answered above 'Not at all,' even if the rest of your score is low.

The combined result reports whichever of your two scores is more severe, not an average. So if your PHQ-9 comes back Mild but your GAD-7 comes back Moderate, your combined result reflects the Moderate anxiety finding — a lower depression score doesn't soften a higher anxiety score, since either one alone is worth attention.

A score of 10 or higher on either the PHQ-9 or GAD-7 is the commonly used threshold at which professional evaluation is generally recommended, per the published scoring guidance for both instruments. That said, if you have any thoughts of self-harm regardless of your total score, or your symptoms are affecting daily life, it's worth reaching out sooner rather than waiting for a specific number.