Mental wellness

Two things on this site are built for mental health and both are private by design. The self-tests reproduce five validated screening instruments, the PHQ-9 for depression, GAD-7 for anxiety, ASRS v1.1 for adult ADHD, PCL-5 for PTSD and the WHO's AUDIT for alcohol use, scored the way their published sources score them, with no answer stored. The guides cover what treatment costs and how the online options differ, because for most adults the question after a screen is practical: who do I see, and what will it cost.

The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were each validated against an independent interview by a mental health professional. The PHQ-9's validation study in 6,000 primary care and obstetrics patients found a score of 10 or more had 88 percent sensitivity and 88 percent specificity for major depression, with 5, 10, 15 and 20 marking mild, moderate, moderately severe and severe symptoms. The GAD-7's study in 2,740 primary care patients identified a cut point with 89 percent sensitivity and 82 percent specificity for generalized anxiety disorder. Those are screening properties: a score estimates symptom severity over the instrument's recall window, and only a clinician can diagnose.

What online therapy costs in 2026 reads each program's own price page and dates it. When we read its FAQ on August 19, 2026, BetterHelp charged $70 to $100 a week without insurance, with an average $23 copay per session on eligible insurance; subscription models bundle a weekly live session with between-session messaging; Sesame's telehealth page, read September 24, 2026, advertised upfront prices "as low as $34" while its title said "From $37", with therapy visits priced by the individual clinician. Insurance changes the math more than any discount code, and the guide says so. BetterHelp and Sesame both pay us a commission when a reader signs up through our links; the guide discloses it where the links appear, and the vetting record shows the check we ran on each.

Call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, at any hour. Every self-test page prints that line. On the depression test, any answer other than "not at all" to the self-harm question puts the 988 line above the score, before anything else on the result. A screening score is never a reason to wait.