What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7)?

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) is like a special kind of thermometer that helps doctors know how worried someone feels inside.

Imagine you have a toy robot that beeps more when it’s scared or excited. The GAD-7 works like that, it has 7 questions, and each one asks about how often you feel worried or tense in the past week. You answer with numbers from 0 to 3 for each question, depending on how much worry you felt.

Each question is like a little beep from your robot:

• "How often have you been able to control your worries?" might be a beep if you feel out of control.
• "How often have you worried about things that don’t seem important?" could be another beep if you’re worrying about tiny stuff.

After answering all 7 questions, the numbers are added up. The total helps doctors see how much anxiety is going on inside your brain, like a robot counting beeps to know how happy or worried you are.

It’s simple, fast, and makes it easier for doctors to help you feel calmer and more in control, just like turning off the noise from your toy robot.