What Is the GAD-7 and How Do You Interpret Your Score?
The GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) is a 7-item anxiety screening tool that measures how severe your anxiety symptoms have been over the past 2 weeks. Each item is scored 0–3, giving a total range of 0–21, and higher totals indicate more severe anxiety. It is a screening instrument, not a diagnosis — a high score signals that a professional evaluation is worth pursuing, not that you have a disorder. On One Mental Hub, the GAD-7 takes about 5 minutes and is one of several evidence-based screenings offered alongside the PHQ-9, WSAS, and others.
What the GAD-7 measures
The tool focuses on the core symptoms of generalized anxiety: feeling nervous or on edge, being unable to stop or control worrying, worrying too much, trouble relaxing, restlessness, irritability, and fear that something awful might happen. The 2-week recall window is deliberate — it captures recent, ongoing symptoms rather than a single bad day.
Because it targets worry and tension rather than panic attacks or specific phobias, a GAD-7 score reflects general anxiety load. It can still be elevated in other anxiety conditions, which is one reason it is used as a first-pass screen rather than a standalone diagnosis.
How scoring works
Each of the 7 items is answered on a 0–3 frequency scale, typically:
| Response | Score |
|---|---|
| Not at all | 0 |
| Several days | 1 |
| More than half the days | 2 |
| Nearly every day | 3 |
Add the 7 item scores for a total between 0 and 21. There is no reverse-scoring and no weighting — every item counts equally.
Interpreting your total score
The commonly used severity bands are:
| Total score | Severity |
|---|---|
| 0–4 | Minimal |
| 5–9 | Mild |
| 10–14 | Moderate |
| 15–21 | Severe |
A frequently cited cutoff for identifying probable generalized anxiety is 10 or above, which balances sensitivity and specificity reasonably well in general populations. That said, the bands describe symptom severity, not a diagnosis. A score of 12 means moderate anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks; it does not by itself confirm an anxiety disorder.
What a high score does — and doesn't — mean
A high GAD-7 score tells you your recent anxiety symptoms are significant enough to warrant attention. It does not tell you the cause, whether the anxiety is primary or secondary to another condition (such as depression, which commonly co-occurs), or what treatment is appropriate. Those judgments require a clinician who can take a history and rule out other explanations.
If your score is in the moderate or severe range, the reasonable next step is to bring it to a healthcare professional. On One Mental Hub, results can be downloaded as a GP-ready report formatted for therapy referrals (Anordnung) in Switzerland, which is designed to make that conversation easier. The platform also combines GAD-7 results with PHQ-9 and WSAS scores into a single wellness indicator — a personal tracking number, explicitly not a diagnosis.
When to seek professional evaluation
Consider professional assessment if:
- Your total score is 10 or higher, or has risen over repeated screenings
- Anxiety is interfering with work, relationships, sleep, or daily functioning (the WSAS can help quantify this)
- You have thoughts of self-harm — seek help immediately rather than relying on a screening score
- Symptoms have persisted for weeks despite self-management
Screening tools like the GAD-7 are most useful as a starting point and a way to track change over time. They give you language and numbers to bring into a clinical conversation, but the interpretation and any diagnosis belong with a qualified professional.