Anxiety isn’t an all-or-nothing feeling. Sometimes you might feel just a little anxious, other times you might feel very anxious, and other times, you may not be anxious at all!
It can be hard to describe how much anxiety we are feeling. It can also be hard to remember how scared we felt in a situation that happened a while ago – or even just yesterday! Because of this, it is helpful to have a tool that we can use to tell others (or ourselves) how anxious or worried we are. The tool we like to use is the anxiety scale.
When you are not feeling anxious at all, your rating on the anxiety scale would be 0.
If you are feeling really anxious, it would be 10.
If you are feeling anxious, but it isn’t high or intense enough to be a 10, you would choose a number somewhere in between!
Let’s look at some examples from Sally. Sally is anxious about talking in front of other people. However, her anxiety level is different depending on the situation. For example, she feels less anxious when she needs to talk in front of a fewer number of classmates.
Let’s look at the ratings below:
Now, think of three situations that make you feel anxious or worried and write them down on this worksheet: Using the Anxiety Scale. Then, mark what your anxiety rating would be for each situation using the anxiety scale. You can make your own worksheet by using the prompts above.
Great job! You are on your way to becoming an anxiety scale boss!
The anxiety scale helps us understand our own anxiety and show other people (like your parents) how you are feeling, too. The anxiety scale is also helpful because it can show us that just because something is really scary right now, it doesn’t mean that it is going to be really scary forever.
You are going to use the anxiety scale throughout LUNA, so start practicing using the anxiety scale to see how strong your anxiety and fear are in different situations.
