Is It Healthy to Take Mental Health Quizzes Online?

There are few things as therapeutic (pun intended) as settling back into bed with a snack and scrolling through miles of quizzes on various sites online, looking for the one to entertain the most. Whether it be “which star trek character are you?” (I still can’t believe Leonard Hofstadter got Captain Kirk, but I mean, it did take the man four tries) or “what’s your spirit animal”, a few answers to absurd questions to gain even more absurd responses can be just the idle time throw-away one looks for after a long day of work.  

NO DEAR, YOU DON’T HAVE ADHD BECAUSE A BUZZFEED QUIZ SAID SO.

Over my years, I can attest to the fact that these pages never run out of fresh new topics to quiz youngsters on. While they may get stranger and stranger, they’re also sprinkled with the everyday material that makes people, kids, teenagers, and adults alike, wonder; (and no, I’m not talking about “at what age will you get married”, even though my answer of age seventy-two might have sent me into an existential crisis.)  

A couple of years ago, when I was just getting into the psychologically crafted world of authors like Sidney Sheldon and Gillian Flynn (who managed to capture the exact essence of an angry woman, might I add), I came across a quiz titled “Are you secretly depressed?” and like any intrigued and mildly jobless teenager, I clicked on it and was greeted by a series of the most ridiculous questions, one of them being “What’s your favorite flavor of bubblegum?”. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t half as naïve as to believe whatever the quiz ended up telling me, not after that questionnaire, but it made me wonder how many mental-health quizzes one could find online how many of them were accurate.  

As beings of the 21^st century, finding the results of an online quiz believable doesn’t sound unappealing, which is where safety comes in. With our surroundings and circumstances becoming more and more familiar with mental health syndromes and leaving us to question our own sanity, is it safe to determine whether or not we’re suffering from a mental disorder by clicking on a few options on a screen? Does a three-minute quiz do the job that most therapists are paid to do and sometimes take more than a year to finish doing? Maybe. Never say never, right?  

However, certain factors need to be paid heed to when taking online mental health quizzes or tests.  

Firstly, and most importantly – where. Just like the right therapist and the right diagnosis is crucial, when taking a virtual mental health quiz, it is essential to question – “Which site are you going to? Which test are you taking?”  Getting diagnosed by a test on the internet might not be the most legitimate option. However, let’s not rule out the fact that there are sites out there that are willing to do the job online and may even be accurate.  
Some effective ways to check the legitimacy of a site include – checking their address bar, contact page, and domain name, reviewing the company’s social media presence, and watching out for poor grammar and spelling.

Most of us can safely say that our second home is Planet Internet, and thus require no tips as to how to know which assessment to believe. Still, keeping in mind, these few pointers can definitely save us a trip to the doctor’s office and back. With that being said, I’d recommend you stray away from sites like BuzzFeed and Quizizz when trying to determine how healthy your mind is.  

Secondly, and this may not seem like a significant factor, but trust me when I say it plays into the accuracy of your response – when. Assuming the legitimacy of the site is covered, taking a quiz at three in the morning, or one at three in the afternoon, when you’re lying on the beach, or when you’re taking an online exam, all have incredibly different mindsets playing into the process of answering questions that are posed. Having a heated discussion with your father that has left you agitated, will leave a significant mark on your endeavor by clouding your vision and accurate thought process. The honesty of your answers can also be determined by your state of mind, which is where ensuring you’re at the place where you can afford to take such tests comes into play.   

Thirdly, ensure the validity of your response and factor it into a licensed professional. Keep in mind that when self-diagnosed, being familiar with the disorder you’re concerned with is extremely important, and no matter how reliable the test you’re taking seems to be, taking it multiple times and maybe even more than one to re-enforce your assumptions will always leave you better off. It is said that there’s never a bad time to get a mental health checkup, and if an online quiz has rendered you relieved or concerned alike, it’s always a good idea to drop in for an appointment and voice your worries to a licensed therapist. Nothing that is told to you online can ever be confirmed, not unless you make it so by reaching out for assistance and guidance. 

And lastly, don’t let it get to you, folks. We’re young, we’re impressionable, and we accept facts at face value (most of the time.) Always remember, there doesn’t have to be anything the matter with you to go to therapy, and everything, everything can be remedied. The task of familiarizing yourself with the rights and wrongs of your mind as a vast spectrum takes most individuals a lifetime, and saying that you like green cupcakes over red ones (still befuddled by that BuzzFeed quiz) does not mean you have a mental disorder.  

The internet is a rusty arena with shady quarters that best be taken with a grain of salt, so with that in mind, trusting the gifted Dr. Phil’s around the globe is always a better idea. Of course, that’s not to say, in a world where generalizing is a crime, that there is nowhere to go online to check up on your mental being, but reserving the virtual quizzes for finding out which FRIENDS character you are, is, as said before, always a better idea.  

Written by Aroma Mall