A multi-dimensional depression and mood self-assessment built around the PHQ-9, the most widely used and validated depression screener in clinical practice. The nine PHQ-9 items appear word-for-word as their own scorable subscale, surrounded by four additional evidence-based dimensions: loss of pleasure and emotional numbness, the inner voice of hopelessness and self-criticism, the physical heaviness depression puts in the body, and the slow pull away from people and responsibilities. Every item asks about real, concrete moments over the last two weeks, so the profile can tell the difference between a hard patch and something heavier — and between people who hide it well and people who are quietly drowning. This is an educational screening tool, not a diagnosis.
Your result is broken down across 5 distinct dimensions rather than collapsing everything into a single number. Each dimension is scored from its own set of items, so you can see which specific pattern is driving your overall result.
Scores fall into one of 4 interpretive bands. Here is what each one means, what tends to sit underneath it, and what usually helps.
Steady & Grounded
Across mood, energy, thinking, and connection, you are in a largely steady place right now.
What it suggests
Your answers point to mostly stable mood and a working sense of pleasure, energy, and connection. Everyone has heavy days, and a low score here doesn't mean you never struggle — it means that, over the last two weeks, the weight wasn't sitting on you most of the time. Notice which of your habits and relationships are quietly holding you up.
What helps
Keep protecting what works — sleep, movement, real connection, and things that genuinely bring you pleasure. Mood naturally dips and recovers, so if a harder stretch comes, treat it as weather rather than identity. If any single answer in the deeper sections felt sharply true, it's worth gently keeping an eye on.
Carrying Some Weight
There's a real low note running through your recent weeks — noticeable, but not constant.
What it suggests
Several answers point to a genuine dip: less pleasure than usual, more tiredness, a harsher inner voice, or pulling back from people. This is the range where many high-functioning people live quietly — getting things done while feeling heavier than they let on. It's a meaningful signal, not a crisis, and it's the kind of thing that responds well to early attention.
What helps
Name it to one person you trust instead of carrying it alone. Protect sleep, daylight, movement, and small doses of things that used to bring pleasure — even when you don't feel like it, since action often comes before motivation in low mood. If this weight has lingered for more than two weeks or keeps deepening, talking with a doctor or therapist is a reasonable, proactive next step.
Heavy & Persistent
The low mood looks more constant and is reaching into your body, your thinking, and your daily life.
What it suggests
Your answers suggest the heaviness is showing up across most days and several areas at once — fading pleasure, a tired and slowed-down body, a self-critical or hopeless inner voice, and withdrawal from people or responsibilities. When this many threads pull in the same direction, it's usually more than a rough patch, and it deserves real care rather than waiting it out.
What helps
This is a good time to reach out for support rather than push through alone — a doctor or therapist can help you understand what's happening and what helps. In the meantime, lower the bar: aim for one small, doable thing a day, stay connected to at least one person, and be as gentle with yourself as you would be with a friend carrying this. Depression lies about the future being fixed — it isn't, and these states are treatable.
Drowning — Please Reach Out
Across nearly every dimension, you appear to be carrying a very heavy load right now.
What it suggests
Your answers point to deep, persistent low mood touching your pleasure, energy, body, thoughts, and connection to others almost every day. Living like this is exhausting, and the fact that you got through this honestly says something about your strength, even if it doesn't feel that way. What you're describing is the kind of suffering that people recover from with support — you don't have to do it on willpower alone.
What helps
Please treat reaching out as the next step, not a last resort: contact a doctor, a therapist, or a trusted person and tell them honestly how heavy things have been. If you've had thoughts of being better off dead or of hurting yourself, you deserve immediate support — in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) any time, and elsewhere you can find a local crisis line at findahelpline.com. If you ever feel you might act on those thoughts, treat it as an emergency and call your local emergency number or go to the nearest emergency room. You matter, this is treatable, and you do not have to carry it alone.
Depression & Mood Profile (incl. PHQ-9) contains 34 items and takes about 8 minutes. Responses are combined using a sum method across the dimensions listed above, then mapped to the interpretive bands above. Your percentile is an interim estimate that sharpens as more people take the test, and is labelled as provisional in your result.
This assessment also includes hidden validity items that detect inattentive or socially-desirable answering. When they trigger, your result carries a lowered confidence rating and we tell you — rather than presenting a skewed score as fact.
This is an educational, self-reflective assessment — not a diagnosis. A questionnaire can describe a pattern and point you toward language for it, but it cannot account for your history, context, or circumstances, and it is not a substitute for evaluation by a qualified professional. If a result concerns you, treat it as a reason to talk to someone rather than as a verdict.
Your answers are scored on your device. Taking this test requires no account, no email address, and no payment, and your full result — every band, every dimension — is shown to you immediately and in full.