Mental Health Test — Free Online Mental Health Baseline Check

What the mental health test measures

"How is my mental health?" is a big question. The Mindtalk mental health test (My Mental Health Baseline, MHB) breaks it into a few everyday areas so you can see where you stand:

• Mood — how often you have felt low, flat or hopeless.
• Worry and tension — how much nervousness or overthinking you notice.
• Stress load — whether demands feel manageable or overwhelming.
• Sleep and energy — how rested you feel.
• Daily functioning — whether work, study, relationships and self-care are keeping up.

It is deliberately broad. Rather than trying to measure one condition in depth, it gives you a baseline and points you toward the validated screener that fits what you are experiencing.

Who it is for

• Anyone who feels "not quite right" but cannot name what is going on.
• People who want a starting point before deciding whether to see a professional.
• People already in therapy who want a simple way to track how they are doing over time.
• Parents, students and working professionals going through a period of change.

How it works in the app

You answer a short set of check-in questions about how things have been recently. The app then shows a snapshot of each area and highlights which ones look steady and which deserve a closer look. Where an area stands out, it suggests the most relevant validated screener to take next, and when your answers suggest you would benefit from professional support, it shows you how to book a Mindtalk psychiatrist or psychologist.

Your results

The baseline is a Mindtalk self-check, not a clinical scale, so its results are not clinical cut-offs. They are presented as areas to watch and a suggested next step. Use this table to find the validated screener that matches what stands out:

If this area stands out	Take this validated screener next	What it adds
Worry, nervousness, restlessness	GAD-7	Anxiety score (0-21) with published severity bands
Low mood, loss of interest	PHQ-9	Depression score (0-27) with published severity bands
Feeling overloaded or out of control	PSS-10	Perceived stress score
General wellbeing feels low	WHO-5	Wellbeing index
Several areas at once	DASS-21	Separate depression, anxiety and stress scores

Validation and evidence

My Mental Health Baseline is Mindtalk's own triage check and has not been validated as a standalone diagnostic instrument. Its role is to route you to screeners that have been. The PHQ-9, for example, was validated against structured interviews by mental health professionals, where a score of 10 or more had 88% sensitivity and 88% specificity for major depression. The GAD-7 was developed by the same research group in 2006 as a brief anxiety measure. The need for simple entry points is real: India's National Mental Health Survey, which completed 34,802 interviews across 12 states in 2015-16, estimated current mental morbidity at 10.56% of adults and a treatment gap of 84.5%. The baseline also reflects the idea that mental health is more than the absence of illness; research on the mental health continuum describes a range from languishing to flourishing.

References

1. Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB. The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. J Gen Intern Med. 2001;16(9):606-613. PubMed
2. Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JB, Löwe B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(10):1092-1097. PubMed
3. Gautham MS, Gururaj G, Varghese M, et al. The National Mental Health Survey of India (2016): Prevalence, socio-demographic correlates and treatment gap of mental morbidity. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2020;66(4):361-372. PubMed
4. Keyes CL. The mental health continuum: from languishing to flourishing in life. J Health Soc Behav. 2002;43(2):207-222. PubMed

What the test does not tell you

• It is not diagnostic. It cannot tell you whether you have depression, an anxiety disorder or any other condition.
• It does not replace a clinician. Physical causes such as thyroid problems, anaemia or medication side effects can affect mood and energy and need a doctor to rule out.
• It is a snapshot. A single difficult week can shift your answers. Retake it after a few weeks to see the trend.
• A steady result is not a guarantee. If something feels wrong regardless of your result, it is still worth talking to someone.

Signs it is time to talk to someone

Whatever your baseline result, consider speaking to a psychiatrist or psychologist if:

• Low mood, worry or irritability has lasted most days for two weeks or more.
• You are struggling to keep up with work, study, relationships or looking after yourself.
• Your sleep, appetite or energy have changed noticeably.
• You are relying more on alcohol, other substances or screens to cope.
• People close to you have said they are worried about you.

Reaching out early usually makes recovery quicker and easier.

If you need help now

If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or feel unsafe, please do not wait for a test result. Contact a crisis helpline same-day: iCall 9152987821, Vandrevala 1860 2662 345, AASRA +91 98204 66726, or the Cadabams 24/7 line +91 97414 76476, or go to your nearest emergency department.

Next steps

• Take the matching screener from the table above.
• Read about common conditions. If worry stands out, start with anxiety; if low mood stands out, read about depression.
• Talk to someone. A few sessions of counselling with a Mindtalk psychologist can help you make sense of your baseline and decide what to do next, online or in person in Bangalore, Hyderabad or Mysore.