Have you recently felt depressed and want to check how you feel? What was the degree of your depression before taking any action or seeking medical help? Learn about your degree of depression using the Beck Depression Scale through this article.

What is the Beck Depression Scale?

The Beck Depression Inventory, or BDI, is one of the methods that was invented and developed in the past in 1961 AD by a famous psychologist, Aaron Beck, in order to measure the degree of depression in patients, and it is one of the most used self-rating scales in All over the world to measure the severity of depression, it is like a questionnaire based on some questions that do not require a visit to the doctor about the symptoms that the patient feels or the situations in his day.

The scale consists of 21 questions of the type of multiple choice questions, and it is about the symptoms that indicate your depression, the extent of your feelings, their duration, and their impact on daily or life situations, as well as measuring your mood and the amount of pessimism and irritability to find out the severity of your symptoms. In 1996, it was shortened to 13 questions and is called the Beck II Depression Inventory.

How is the Beck Depression Scale Tested?

As mentioned earlier, the scale consists of 21 questions that vary between common daily symptoms and situations that can occur among people with depression, such as moodiness, selflessness, social isolation, sleep disturbances, and other situations.

The answer to these questions is classified in terms of severity, as the question takes a score between 0 to 3. If you choose zero, it means that you are not severely ill, but if you choose 3, then this means that you have severe symptoms. Then the numbers of the answers are added linearly to get a score ranging from 0 to 63.

Beck depression scale questions

The questions revolve around the following sentences that you have to rate from 0 to 3 according to how you feel about it, where 0 means that you don’t feel this at all and 3 is the maximum degree of feeling for this situation or sentence, and the expressions for depression scale are as follows (choose for each statement from 0 to 3):

1. feeling sad
2. Pessimism and frustration about the future.
3. Not enjoying the things you used to.
4. Not seeing anything but failure.
5. Feeling guilty all the time.
6. Constant crying more than ever.
7. Feeling disappointed in oneself.
8. Suicidal thoughts and tendencies.
9. Irritability and anger all the time.
10. Loss of interest in others.
11. Self-blame.
12. self-punishment.
13. Lack of self-confidence and seeing it as ugly.
14. Difficulty making decisions.
15. anorexia
16. Weight loss.
17. Sleep disorders and insomnia.
18. Loss of ability to do something.
19. Feeling tired all the time.
20. The presence of health problems that are not treated with painkillers, such as headaches, stomach disorders, and back pain.
21. Loss of sexual desire.

This measure takes about 10 to 15 minutes to do, and after completing the assessment of the previous sentences, you must add the numbers resulting from your answers in writing, and you will know the result through the next paragraph.

Beck scale test result

The result of taking the Beck Depression Scale test is classified according to the numbers that you get after adding the numbers generated by the answers, and the correction key is as follows:

• From 1 to 10: It is the minimum level and means that you do not suffer from depression and that it is just normal feelings that come and go.
• From 11 to 16: means that you suffer from mild depression or what is known as minor depression.
• From 17 to 20: means that you suffer from moderate depression.
• From 21 to 30: You suffer from severe depression.
• From 31 to 40: very severe depression.
• From 41 and above: means that you suffer from very severe depression.

A score from 11 to 63 means that you need to seek medical help in order to prevent the development of your psychological condition and prevent an increase in the severity of your depression.

What should you do after the Beck Depression Scale?

After completing the answers to the questions of the Beck scale and evaluating the answer, and knowing the degree of depression that you suffer from, if you took the scale on your own without resorting to a doctor, you must start receiving medical assistance by a specialist or a psychologist, while if the scale is under the supervision of a doctor, it will start with you The treatment journey depends on the degree of your depression, and treatment is often as follows:

• pharmaceutical: Your doctor may prescribe antidepressants.
• Psychotherapy: It is through psychotherapy sessions and through talking sessions between the specialist and you.
• Electroconvulsive therapy: This is in cases of severe depression that does not respond to any other type of treatment.

In the end, after knowing what the Beck Depression Scale is, how it can be done, and how to evaluate it, as well as its questions, you should not be complacent about your psychological state, and if you feel that you are suffering from depression and you are confirmed through this scale, you should quickly go to a psychologist to help you start your journey. Your treatment, to prevent the development of your health condition and lead to serious psychological complications, and we wish you a speedy recovery.