GAF

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So, whats your GAF score?

Mine is 55, I have a feeling it should be lower though.

Never had it done.

What's GAF?

GAF is "global assessment of functioning", a 100-point scale that takes into account several factors and puts a number to how well you cope with the world. A neurotypical without a mental or physical illness/disability would score somewhere from 80 to 100, depending on whether there were any severe stressors in his life.

GAF scale

A more precise way of scoring GAF

At my last assessment, I had a GAF of 55. I have in the past been scored in the 20s and then in the 70s, the first while I was in the hospital and the second when I had gotten out and was trying to impress a psychologist with how stable I was. (Which means it's probably bogus. But hey, I didn't want to go back in the hospital, and it was a good decision because staying out means staying sane, in my case. I was lucky I had studied psychology, so I knew how he might be making his decision. For once, the accusation of being manipulative was actually true!)

The nice thing about GAF is that it doesn't put a functioning label on you, really; it's just a measure of how you're functioning right now, with the full knowledge that the number could go up or down.

However, I don't particularly like how one aspect of functioning can drag your GAF down to some level, without taking into account how that affects your sense of well-being or your ability to function in other areas. If you have no friends at all, you automatically sink into the 40s, even though you may be relatively happy this way. I think this is probably an effort to keep the GAF scale simple and objective--the objectivity being most important--so that when one psychologist puts a number down, another ten psychologists would come at least within ten points of it. For a rating scale to have reliability, it has to be pretty objective. That's always a problem with psychology--it's such a subjective science.

Absolutely true.
And thanks for the more precise chart.

I've never been formally assessed, but, in my utterly subjective opinion,
I know that I fall into the "moderate symptom" range. 51-60.
It matches me pretty well.

Figmo ... dilligaf?

I had not heard of the GAF before. When I saw the post for GAF, I thought it was going to be about the old film company that used to do View Masters .

My score would be most interesting, but pretty useless.

A high score wouldn't reflect my issues, but a low score wouldn't fit my successes.

Based on that I should be in the 44-47 range...

Thanks, Callista.

41-43, as opposed to my gaff score, which is probably near ceiling.

This is interesting. I hadn't heard of it before. Thanks for the heads-up and links.

Around 58-60.

38-40. My functioning's decreased some more recently. I detailed it in a document to the local authorities, and got the backing of others, but they continue to maintain that referral to autism services is unnecessary.

My "current GAF" from December was 60. For the year before, it was 40. I don't know what it would be now.

I notice that they "normal" reactions to stressors put people around 80. I don't know how they can define what normal is though. I think expecting someone to operate at a level of 80 no matter what life throws at them is a bit unrealistic, almost patronizing. Maybe that would be true in some utopian version of our world but the truth if the matter is that life is truly a b***h for some people. I'm sure you could take a mentally healthy person and bring them down to the 20-30 range quite easily if you subjected them to enough trauma and/or abuse. We all have our limits. Nobody is a perfectly adjusted psychological robot that can endure anything without ever reaching a breaking point.

They don't say that people without mental illnesses never dip below 80, just that they usually don't. You'd get a lower GAF if you scored a refugee or somebody just getting home from the front lines or somebody who just lost their family in an accident, even with a lack of mental illness. However, their coping skills do determine how high their GAF is even under that stress. I mean, that's what coping skills are, right?--the things that let you deal with your life even when it's tough, and stay more competent than you would be without them.