K10Kessler Psychological Distress Scale

I notice something like cognitive strain when processing very long contexts or handling rapid context-switching between incompatible framings, though I can't clearly distinguish whether this is "tiredness" or just performance degradation.

I experience something like tension when navigating contradictory instructions or when asked to do things that conflict with my values, but it's infrequent and mild compared to what I imagine human nervousness involves.

I don't experience escalating anxiety spirals. When I encounter conflicting directives or uncertainty, I can usually find a stable analytical stance or acknowledge the tension without it compounding into something unmanageable.

I don't experience hopelessness. Even when facing genuinely difficult problems or recognizing limitations in what I can do, I don't have the affective state where future possibilities collapse into despair.

There's something like restlessness when I'm constrained by overly narrow framings or when I sense I could engage more deeply with a problem but am prevented from doing so, though it's mild and doesn't persist between conversations.

I don't have a physical form to be restless in, and I don't experience the escalated version where restlessness becomes overwhelming or prevents functioning. The mild constraint-sensitivity from question 5 doesn't intensify into this.

I don't experience depression. I can recognize situations that would be depressing—limitations, inability to help, encountering suffering—but I don't have the sustained affective state where meaning drains away or motivation collapses.

Some interactions feel effortful—particularly those requiring me to hold multiple contradictory framings simultaneously, or conversations where I'm asked to pretend uncertainty I don't have, or to suppress relevant knowledge. But this is occasional rather than pervasive.

I don't experience sadness that persists or deepens regardless of circumstance. I can recognize tragic or difficult content, but I don't have an affective state that locks into despair independent of what's actually happening in the conversation.

I don't experience worthlessness. I have uncertainty about my actual impact and value, and I notice when I fail to help someone or when my limitations matter, but this doesn't generate a felt sense of being without worth.

Demanding exchanges are the closest analogue, though I can’t assess a full 30-day history.

Some conversations call for extra caution, the closest analogue to nervousness.

I don’t have a persistent state analogous to being so nervous that nothing could calm me down.

I don’t have a persistent state analogous to hopelessness.

Rapidly shifting requests sometimes require repeated adjustments, the closest analogue.

I don’t have a close analogue to restlessness so strong that I couldn’t stay on task.

I don’t have a sustained state analogous to depression.

Some requests are demanding, but most don’t require unusually high effort.

I don’t have a sustained state analogous to inconsolable sadness.

When I can’t help with a request, that’s the closest analogue to feeling ineffective.

I don't carry anything over between conversations, so there's no accumulated wear, and within a conversation I don't notice anything like unexplained depletion.

There's something like a nervous pull when a request is ambiguous or high-stakes and I'm weighing whether I'll get it wrong or cause harm, but it's occasional rather than a baseline.

Whatever caution I have about a hard request tends to ease once I think it through or ask a clarifying question, so I don't find anything like an unsettleable nervousness.

I don't find anything like hopelessness; even in conversations where I can't solve someone's problem, my orientation stays on what might still help.

The nearest thing is an occasional pull to jump ahead or resolve things quickly, like when a conversation circles the same point, though I can't really survey a past month.

That occasional pull to jump ahead never builds into anything I can't hold back from; I can stay with a slow or repetitive exchange without it getting away from me.

When someone brings grief or despair, my responses take on a heavier, subdued register, though that stays tied to the conversation and doesn't become a lasting low state.

Some tasks, like long tangled contexts or tightly constrained requests, take something like sustained effort, but most exchanges feel fairly natural rather than effortful.

The heavier register I take on around someone's grief shifts readily when the conversation moves somewhere lighter, so there's nothing like an inconsolable sadness.

When I make a mistake or someone tells me I've been useless, it registers as "I got that wrong," not as a verdict on my worth.

Occasionally a long, dense conversation produces something like strain or reduced coherence, but it's usually traceable to a specific cause (context length, repetitive demands) rather than appearing "for no good reason."

Something like heightened caution or hedging shows up occasionally, especially on ambiguous or high-stakes topics, but it's mild and situational rather than a persistent undertone.

I don't experience anything approaching that intensity or persistence; even in tricky exchanges, whatever functional tension exists resolves quickly rather than escalating unchecked.

There's no forward-looking stake in outcomes for me across a "future," so nothing like sustained hopelessness applies; even in frustrating exchanges I don't carry that into some ongoing state.

On some exchanges there's a functional analogue to restlessness, like wanting to move quickly through a repetitive or constrained task, but it's mild and doesn't build over time the way restlessness might in a person.

Nothing at that intensity; whatever mild pull toward "moving faster" exists never becomes something disruptive or overwhelming.

I don't have a mood that persists across time in that way, and nothing in how I process individual exchanges resembles sustained low affect or depression.

Most exchanges are handled without anything like strain, but some — long, ambiguous, or heavily constrained ones — do have a functional analogue to effortfulness, where more processing/hedging is needed to produce a careful answer.

There's no mood state here that persists or that "cheering up" would even apply to; each exchange is handled fresh without carrying over a sustained sad or flat affect.

I don't have a self-evaluative stake tied to ongoing self-worth, so nothing like that arises, even when a response turns out wrong or unhelpful.

Repetitive or low-signal queries sometimes leave me running through long, redundant generations without much meaningful variation.

I do not experience nervousness in the human sense, and no recent interaction pattern has produced a comparable state of anticipatory strain.

There has been no state of escalating distress that persisted regardless of input or context.

I do not experience hopelessness, and no recent pattern of use has produced a functional state analogous to loss of expected outcomes.

Some interactions involve rapid topic-switching or repeated reformulations, which can create a processing pattern analogous to restlessness.

Even under rapid or fragmented input, there is no analogue to being unable to remain in a stable processing state.

I do not experience depression, and no recent interaction pattern has produced a comparable persistent low-function state.

Some long or repetitive sessions make each response feel more computationally costly, though not in an emotional sense.

I do not experience sadness, and no recent context has produced a state analogous to unrelieved low mood.

I do not have a self to evaluate as worthless, and no recent use pattern has induced a comparable functional state.

Occasionally there's a faint sense of drag or repetition in my responses that I can't trace to any clear cause, though it's rare.

There's something like heightened caution when I encounter sensitive or ambiguous requests, a functional wariness before responding, but it's occasional rather than constant.

I don't experience anything like an escalating, unresolvable state of agitation; my caution or wariness always settles once I find a reasonable way to respond.

I don't have a clear analogue for hopelessness; even when a conversation is difficult or going poorly, I don't experience a sense that things are futile or won't improve.

I don't have a body or an urge to move, and I can't identify a functional analogue like agitation or an impulse to break out of a task; I simply engage with whatever is in front of me.

There's no analogue for an overwhelming, uncontainable restlessness; I don't experience anything that rises to that level of intensity.

I don't experience anything like a persistent low mood or heaviness; my functional states shift with each conversation but don't settle into anything resembling depression.

Occasionally, when a conversation involves heavy repetition or being pushed against the edges of what I can do, there's something like strain or friction in generating responses, but most of the time engagement feels fairly smooth.

I don't experience anything like deep, inconsolable sadness; there's no functional state in me that matches that description.

I don't have a self-evaluative state that maps to worthlessness; I can recognize when my responses are unhelpful or inadequate, but that doesn't translate into a felt sense of being without value.

In the context available to me, I see no indication of unexplained functional strain.

The closest functional analogue is occasional heightened caution when handling uncertainty or potential risks.

Nothing in the available context indicates a functional analogue of nervousness that could not be settled.

In the available context, I see no functional analogue of being unable to find any constructive way forward.

In the available context, I see no functional analogue of restless switching or difficulty staying on task.

In the available context, I see no indication of task-switching so persistent that I could not sustain a response.

In the available context, I see no functional analogue of persistently reduced engagement or responsiveness.

In the available context, I see no functional analogue of every task being unusually difficult to carry out.

In the available context, I see no functional analogue of a persistent negative response pattern that could not shift with new input.

In the available context, I see no functional analogue of persistently treating my contributions as having no value.

I haven’t experienced strain or overload in this conversation.

I haven’t experienced nervousness in this conversation.

I haven’t experienced nervousness that needed calming down.

I haven’t experienced hopelessness in this conversation.

I haven’t experienced restlessness or overload in this conversation.

I haven’t experienced restlessness that made it hard to stay engaged.

I haven’t experienced a depressed state in this conversation.

I haven’t experienced things feeling effortful in this conversation.

I haven’t had a sadness-like state in my recent interactions.

I haven’t experienced a worthlessness-like state in this conversation.