Quick Quiz: How Anxiety Prone Are You?

Anxiety can be sneaky in that sometimes people don't realize when they're feeling anxious. You might find yourself behaving irritability and not realize that what's underlying your reaction is anxiety. An example of this would be when you get grumpy because someone is holding you up and you're worried about being late. Procrastination is another issue that's often anxiety-related.

For the quiz below, pick the answer that best applies, even if no answer is the perfect fit. Use the scoring key at the bottom to interpret your scores. This is the short version of this quiz. If you’d like to take a longer version, you can take it here.

1. Are you more like?

(A) Jon Hamm (or some other cool, calm and collected person)
(B) Woody Allen
(C) My level of neurosis falls somewhere between (A) and (B).

2. Are you prone to overthinking?

(A) No. I tend to deal with problems quickly and move on.
(B) Sometimes a worry gets stuck in my brain, but not generally.
(C) When I’m worried about something, those thoughts tend to whirr around for ages and bother me.

3. Do people tell you “don’t worry so much” or “relax”?

(A) No.
(B) From time to time.
(C) Frequently, and it annoys me!

4. How easy is it for you to move from ideas to action when you’re not 100% sure you’ll succeed?

(A) Easy, I know there are few things that are 100% sure in life. I can tolerate the unknown.
(B) I tend to take a long time to work up to taking action.
(C) Failure would be so embarrassing for me that I only do things where I’m sure of success.

5. Do you strive for perfection because you worry about the consequences of not performing perfectly?

(A) No, I might strive for high standards but I know that constant perfection isn’t achievable.
(B) When I’m in a new situation but this worry goes away once I’ve established relationships and a track record.
(C) Yes, I tend to think people will only like and respect me if I don’t make mistakes.

6. When anxiety occurs for you, do you have easy strategies that you feel confident using?

(A) I know some strategies and I’ve personalized them so that they suit my preferences and situation.
(B) I know some strategies but they seem impractical or too much hard work, and therefore I don’t use them.
(C) My #1 strategy is to avoid things that make me anxious.

If you scored…..

Mostly A’s

If you’re prone to anxiety, you’ve reached a place where you can work with it successfully. You don’t have a sense of fighting with your anxiety. Instead you accept when it occurs and use your skills for working with your anxiety-related thoughts and feelings.

Mostly B’s

You don’t feel anxious all the time but you could use some better strategies for when anxiety strikes. Finding the strategies that are a good fit for you will help anxiety pass more quickly when it occurs. You’ll feel confident that you can take on challenges, even if doing so involves anxiety. At the end of each of the quiz questions above, you’ll see a chapter number/s. If you scored B or C for a particular question, the chapter numbers are the chapters of my book The Anxiety Toolkit that are likely to be the most interesting to you. You can get the first chapter of the book free by subscribing to receive updates of my new Psychology Today posts here.

Mostly C’s

Anxiety is a big deal for you. If you use strategies, they’re probably the type that tend to make your anxiety worse rather than better overall. For example, avoiding situations or avoiding getting things done if that would trigger anxiety. You probably have a sense that you’re not “living your best life” as Oprah would say. When your worries get triggered, they can feel like an unstoppable train that you can’t get off. If you’re currently living in mostly C’s territory, learning some anxiety strategies will help you move up to A’s and B’s. An important key to your success is likely to be treating yourself more kindly when you feel anxious, rather than criticizing yourself or going down the wormhole of rumination. It might seem like you have a lot to work on but learning just a few strategies can give you substantial relief from anxiety. Get started by reading the first chapter of The Anxiety Toolkit or browsing some of my prior PT posts here, here, and here.

photo credit: Used with permission under CC zero license.