One of the ways to quickly assess yourself to see if there is something more serious to address related to mental or emotional health is to take a screening test or quiz. These are short questionnaires with broad, general results on a specific topic.

We have gathered a few links to Mental Health America’s website. They have several screening tests to help as you seek to understand yourself (or a close family member) better. Please understand that a screening test or quiz is not meant to diagnose or to be the final word in whether there is ‘something wrong’. It is meant to highlight specific factors that might suggest there is something to pay attention to. After you take the test, you will be provided with information on resources and tools to help you understand the results. If a screening result suggests there might be something to be concerned about, please follow up with a trained professional (e.g., primary care Dr, psychiatrist, therapist) and have a more thorough assessment completed. These professionals will support you in deciding the best option for addressing the concern you identified.

Also, please understand that people’s moods and ability to address them vary with life circumstances. Just because you experience something for a while, doesn’t mean that it is at the level of a long-term clinical problem that you’ll be dealing with your whole life. Working with a professional will help determine how serious it is and how best to address it.

(listed here are links to screening tests for issues we commonly address at Elevo Counseling; there are more if you’d like to see all the options

Clinical depression is present when no matter what you try, you consistently stay in a low mood, month after month, or even year after year. Meds may help some people, and some may reach desirable results with just therapy, but research demonstrates that the best treatment is therapy and medication together, particularly for those who have experienced long-term mood problems. A more complete assessment is needed to diagnose Clinical Depression.

Anxiety is the worry and persistent on-edge feeling you have about a certain situation, usually something that is identifiable. It feels uncontrollable, even when you can tell you are anxious and try to say to yourself “this is silly to worry about”. Sometimes we can manage it with self-talk, but other times it comes on so strong and without a specific target that it is difficult to manage. Anxiety responds best to a combination of medication and therapy.

PTSD is a long-lasting result some people have from a traumatic event (or longer-lasting life circumstance) when the person has been unable to relieve all the stuck negative energy caught up in the memory of the event. Reminders from noises, smells, visuals, words, or intrusive memories serve as triggers to bring back a degree of the memories or emotions the person felt when in the middle of the event(s). These intrusive thoughts or emotions disrupt the person’s life and daily activities. PTSD is NOT a sign of weakness, it is simply one of the mind’s responses to trauma, which can be treated.

Developmentally speaking, children deviating from parents’ desires or authority is actually a good thing. When children test boundaries and try to think for themselves, they are developing their higher-level brain functions and moral judgment, and they are developing Self. However, when a child’s behavior turns risky, dangerous, overly belligerent, and defiant, parents need to take more serious action than just hoping it is a phase (e.g., drugs, running away, self-harm, unprotected sex, drastic pulling away from family).