[IchbinkeinTeufel]

My score on 01/27/10 was 111, and I just took the sanity test again, getting a much lower 93; how seriously can I take this as a sign that I have improved in the last 4 years?

Just curious. Has anyone else had drastic drops like this? I'm still very much struggling with depression, OCD, and anxiety, but there are certain improvements in my life, such as having a part-time volunteer job, working out a lot, looking after my body, sleeping a bit better, etc. All these changes are mostly within the past 4 or 5 months, so I dunno how long they'll last.

Also, is the test one of those "in the last 2 weeks" ones, or for right now, for today? I answered for like... "lately", ... so, the last month or two, perhaps.

I noticed it said that I still show strong signs of having PTSD; I've always thought this to be very likely, because stuff certainly happened when I was a kid, and it never wore off, but it's just hard to see it as PTSD... I'm so used to thinking that people with PTSD have had some sort of severe traumatic event, like ... being attacked, in a crash, witnessed a brutal murder, etc. I wish it were something easy to talk about, so I can't just head on over to the PTSD forum and tell everyone about it, but it is far from that. Surprisingly, it hasn't really come up with doctors, that I may or do have PTSD... it likely never will because of my aversion to even talk about it all. I prefer to pretend I didn't have a childhood... better to forget and get it out of the way, right?

Amazingly, the test picked up on the fact that I have OCD and anxiety issues. (I believe GAD, Acute Anxiety, and social anxiety, were all mentioned at some point or other, the first two by a psychiatrist)

Cheers.

[Travelinglady]

Zwang, I think this test can pick up on improvements.

I went through emotional abuse as a child, and I had one therapist who said I showed signs of PTSD.

[Perna]

The "test" is self-directed/scored. You are deciding how to answer the questions, whether consciously or unconsciously, by how you feel at the moment. 100 is "average" and "normal" and all that kind of stuff so going from 111 to 93 is not necessarily all that different. If you saved both tests, I would look at what areas you did better in and think about what is different in your life in those areas over the last 4 years; what you have done/achieved that helped you feel better about yourself there. How you think/feel about the questions determine your score. I will always mark my weight and background the same so the test will always say I have problems there. But it is how I view my weight and background, not how the test scores the fact that I "have" a background there that matters. The test is to show you areas you might not have thought about working on or confirm vague feelings you might not have been able to put into words about what you might want to address with a therapist or through self-help.