The Meaning of Anxiety

Every child has some worries, fears, or anxieties. Will you please check the following list as to whether you had each worry “never,” “sometimes,” or “often” as a child.

	Never	Sometimes	Often
1. Failing a test in school	_____	_____	_____
2. My father losing his job	_____	_____	_____
3. Being scolded by the teacher	_____	_____	_____
4. Being in an accident	_____	_____	_____
5. My mother leaving me	_____	_____	_____
6. Not having enough to eat	_____	_____	_____
7. Not having girl friends	_____	_____	_____
8. Being left behind in my grade at school	_____	_____	_____
9. My parents being sick	_____	_____	_____
10. Someone following me at night	_____	_____	_____
11. My brother or sister leaving me	_____	_____	_____
12. Not being popular enough	_____	_____	_____
13. Getting struck by a car	_____	_____	_____
14. Making a speech before a group in school	_____	_____	_____
15. Getting sick	_____	_____	_____
16. My father scolding me	_____	_____	_____
17. Having bad dreams	_____	_____	_____
18. Not having boy friends	_____	_____	_____
19. Not being able to get a job	_____	_____	_____
20. Dying	_____	_____	_____
21. Not being a success	_____	_____	_____
22. My brother or sister picking on me	_____	_____	_____
23. Having to support my parents some day	_____	_____	_____
24. My mother scolding me	_____	_____	_____
25. Not getting enough presents at Christmas	_____	_____	_____
26. Being in a play in school (stage fright)	_____	_____	_____
27. The house burning down	_____	_____	_____
28. Being poor	_____	_____	_____
29. Being left alone in the dark	_____	_____	_____
30. My sister or brother getting more presents than I at Christmas	_____	_____	_____
31. My father leaving me	_____	_____	_____
32. Whether I would get married	_____	_____	_____
33. My father punishing me	_____	_____	_____
34. My mother dying	_____	_____	_____
35. When my menstrual period came	_____	_____	_____
36. Robbers breaking in the house	_____	_____	_____
37. Not having an attractive home	_____	_____	_____
38. My brother or sister dying	_____	_____	_____
39. Being lonely	_____	_____	_____
40. Feeling my parents might not care for me	_____	_____	_____
41. Witches or ghosts coming	_____	_____	_____
42. My mother punishing me	_____	_____	_____
43. My father dying	_____	_____	_____
44. Not being attractive	_____	_____	_____
45. Not being healthy	_____	_____	_____
46. Things I saw in movies, like Frankensteins	_____	_____	_____
47. Being out in lightning and thunder-storm	_____	_____	_____
48. People picking fights with me	_____	_____	_____
49. Meeting snakes	_____	_____	_____
50. Meeting large animals	_____	_____	_____
51. Having the dentist pull a tooth	_____	_____	_____
52. Someone ridiculing or making fun of me	_____	_____	_____
53. Jumping or falling off a high cliff	_____	_____	_____
54. Being shut in a room by myself	_____	_____	_____

People worry or have anxiety about different things. Please check this list as to whether you worry or have anxiety about each thing “often,” “sometimes,” or “never.”

1. Being struck by an auto	_____	_____	_____
2. Not being attractive to men	_____	_____	_____
3. Going to the hospital	_____	_____	_____
4. Whether I will be successful at my jobs	_____	_____	_____
5. Getting old too soon	_____	_____	_____
6. Whether my mother is disappointed in me	_____	_____	_____
7. Whether I will be unhappy	_____	_____	_____
8. Not having enough money to get along	_____	_____	_____
9. Being operated on	_____	_____	_____
10. Not having men friends	_____	_____	_____
11. Whether my baby will be healthy	_____	_____	_____
12. What people in the hospital will say to me	_____	_____	_____
13. Being discharged from my work	_____	_____	_____
14. What my brother or sister thinks of me	_____	_____	_____
15. The city being bombed by enemy planes	_____	_____	_____
16. Where I will live	_____	_____	_____
17. Nightmares or bad dreams	_____	_____	_____
18. Whether I will get married some day	_____	_____	_____
19. Being held up by a robber	_____	_____	_____
20. What my baby will look like	_____	_____	_____
21. Losing my figure	_____	_____	_____
22. Not having good health	_____	_____	_____
23. What my girl friends think about me	_____	_____	_____
24. Dying	_____	_____	_____
25. The labor pains of birth	_____	_____	_____
26. What my men friends think of me	_____	_____	_____
27. Bad luck	_____	_____	_____
28. Whether I should keep my baby	_____	_____	_____
29. What my father thinks of me	_____	_____	_____
30. What kind of work I should follow	_____	_____	_____
31. Being lonely	_____	_____	_____
32. My father or mother dying	_____	_____	_____
33. People being angry at me	_____	_____	_____
34. Being poisoned	_____	_____	_____
35. Not getting the man I love	_____	_____	_____
36. Friends letting me down	_____	_____	_____
37. Drowning	_____	_____	_____
38. Not getting the approval of the employers I work for	_____	_____	_____

People have different worries or anxieties. Please check this list as to whether you worry or have anxiety about each thing “often,” “sometimes,” or “never.”

1. Friends not sticking by me	_____	_____	_____
2. Where and how I will live	_____	_____	_____
3. Being discharged from my job	_____	_____	_____
4. Being hurt in an air raid	_____	_____	_____
5. Not having men friends	_____	_____	_____
6. What my sister or brother will think of me	_____	_____	_____
7. My apartment building catching fire	_____	_____	_____
8. How my baby will develop	_____	_____	_____
9. Having an operation	_____	_____	_____
10. Whether I will get married some day	_____	_____	_____
11. Bad dreams or nightmares	_____	_____	_____
12. Not getting the man I love	_____	_____	_____
13. Being poisoned	_____	_____	_____
14. My father or mother dying	_____	_____	_____
15. Being lonely	_____	_____	_____
16. What kind of work I should follow	_____	_____	_____
17. What my men friends will think of me	_____	_____	_____
18. Some calamity befalling me	_____	_____	_____
19. Not having a good figure	_____	_____	_____
20. What my father will think of me	_____	_____	_____
21. What future plans I should make for the baby	_____	_____	_____
22. Dying	_____	_____	_____
23. Not having good health	_____	_____	_____
24. What my girl friends say about me	_____	_____	_____
25. Being run into by a car	_____	_____	_____
26. Getting old too quickly	_____	_____	_____
27. Not being successful at my work	_____	_____	_____
28. What my neighbors will think of me	_____	_____	_____
29. Whether I will be unhappy	_____	_____	_____
30. Whether I will have enough money to get along	_____	_____	_____
31. How my baby’s health will be	_____	_____	_____
32. Not being attractive to men	_____	_____	_____
33. Not getting the approval of employers I work for	_____	_____	_____
34. People picking fights with me	_____	_____	_____
35. A robber entering my house	_____	_____	_____
36. What my mother will think of me	_____	_____	_____
37. Having teeth pulled by a dentist	_____	_____	_____
38. Having to go to the hospital again	_____	_____	_____

Note: The above three check-lists are not presented as models for other studies. They were drawn up for the author’s study, and the content of the items is specifically related to that study. They are presented here to enable the reader to see more concretely the basis for one approach to the cases in Chapters 8 and 9.