Posted by Dinah on April 27, 2013, at 14:44:14
How do you all manage those "rate your anxiety (or depression or whatever)" from 1-5 or 1-10? I hate those. It's been a big part of therapy lately since we've been doing CBT emetophobia therapy.
Do you start with panic attack being 10, and 5 as being half as anxious as that? Because that, to me, would put most of my anxiety at less than one, since panic attacks are soooo awful.
My therapist suggests that if the thought of panic attacks makes rating my anxiety impossible, that I rate anxiety from one to ten, and consider a panic attack to be outside the range. Maybe a 100. That helps. But I'm not sure this kind of anxiety feels the same as other types of anxiety, so I still feel at a loss. There isn't the racing heart and jittery feeling. It's more a feeling of rising tension. I remember seeing my face one time, and it was bright cherry red and my head felt like it was about to explode.
I am thinking of suggesting a scale that has 10 being "a degree of tension and pressure that would ordinarily cause me to get up and run" or maybe a 10 being actually keeling over from a stroke, and an 8 being where I feel an overwhelming urge to flight.
I hate these rating systems. I really do. How am I supposed to know what level it ought to be? I'm the same about pain. Even if I consider a 10 to be the worst pain I've ever had, I need to leave lots of room for the worst sort of pain anyone has ever had, which I'm sure I've never even approached.
poster:Dinah
thread:1042759
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20130309/msgs/1042759.html