How are you feeling? A self-assessment tool for patients and families
Many of us who’ve been through a heart attack, and the families who sat beside us in the hospital, know this feeling. Worry and sadness can stay with us after we come home. Some of us at HHIF have been through this ourselves.
This private self-check may help you decide what support to seek. It is not a diagnosis.
Your answers stay in your browser and aren’t sent or saved, unless you choose to ask us for help. No name needed.
This check is made for adults (18 and over). If you’re younger and things feel heavy, please talk to a grown-up you trust, or call Tele-MANAS 14416. You matter too.
Chest pain, trouble breathing or fainting? This check is not for body symptoms. Call 112 now.
If you can see this message, the self-check could not start on this page. Please try again later, or on another browser.
You can still get support now: Call Tele-MANAS 14416 (free, 24 hours) to speak with a trained counsellor. If you might hurt yourself or are in immediate danger, call 112.
Frequently asked questions
Am I the only one who feels this way?
Coming home after a heart attack can bring new medicines, new routines and feelings we did not expect.
Some days we felt sad, and we didn’t know why. Some nights we lay awake, listening to our own heartbeat. Some of us got scared of every small pain. Some of us kept seeing that day again and again.
Our families felt it too. The ones who sat by the hospital bed. The ones who still watch us climb the stairs.
If this sounds like you, you are not alone. You are not weak for feeling this way. And help is there.
Who is this for?
This page is for anyone touched by a heart attack:
- You, if you’ve had a heart attack.
- You, if you are a family member or caregiver of someone who has.
Caregivers carry this too. The worry. The tired nights. The brave face. Your feelings matter just as much.
Everyone answers about their own feelings. If you’re a caregiver, please answer about you, not about the person you care for.
This check is made for adults (18 and over). If you’re younger and things feel heavy, please talk to a grown-up you trust, or call Tele-MANAS 14416. You matter too.
Why we’re asking about feelings
Doctors and scientists have found that the heart and the mind are closely linked. A heart attack can change how we feel. And how we feel can affect our heart, too.
That’s why big heart-health groups, like the American Heart Association, now suggest checking how a person is feeling as part of heart care. They use short, well-known question lists, like the ones on this page.
And here is the good news: looking after how we feel can help our heart as well.
Why these questions? Can I trust them?
We don’t want to guess how you feel. So we use three short question lists that doctors use and that scientists have studied for years. We didn’t write them. We show the first two exactly as they were made. For the third, we changed only the examples of frightening events to heart-related ones.
GAD-7: about worry. 7 questions about feeling nervous, worried or on edge in the last 2 weeks.
PHQ-9: about feeling low. 9 questions about mood, interest, sleep and energy in the last 2 weeks.
Adapted from the PC-PTSD-5: after a frightening experience. One yes/no question first. Only if you say yes, 5 more short yes/no questions about things like scary memories, avoiding reminders, or always feeling on guard, in the last month.
These lists help show if some feelings may need a closer look. They cannot tell you for sure if you have anxiety, depression or PTSD. Only a trained professional can, by talking with you.
Is it my heart or my mind?
Please don’t use this check for body symptoms.
If you have any of these, call 112 now:
- Chest pain, pressure or tightness
- Trouble breathing, or feeling very breathless
- Pain spreading to your arm or jaw
- Sudden sweating
- Fainting, or feeling like you might faint
If something in your body feels new or different, but it is not an emergency, please see your heart doctor.
Feelings like sadness, worry, scary memories or poor sleep can be the mind’s after-effects of what we went through. This check helps you see where you stand with those feelings.
This check cannot tell you whether your heart is okay. Only your doctor can. If you’re not sure, please ask your doctor first. That is always okay.
How your privacy works
Your answers stay in your browser and aren’t sent or saved, unless you choose to ask us for help.
- We don’t ask for your name to do the check.
- Your answers are held temporarily on this page. Use Clear this check when you finish, especially on a shared phone.
- You can take a screenshot of your result to keep for yourself.
- Asking HHIF for help is your choice, and separate from the check. You can ask for help without sharing your scores.
- Your results are never posted in any HHIF group or WhatsApp group.
- The check itself saves and sends nothing until you choose to ask for help. The website uses standard analytics, like the rest of hearthealthindia.org.
If you ask HHIF to call you:
- What is sent: your name, phone, email (if you give it), best time to call, language, whether you are a patient or family member, and your scores and answers only if you tick the box to share them.
- Who can see it: only HHIF’s two founders, Ram and Aditi, can see your scores and answers; your name and number are used by the HHIF team only to call you back.
- Where it is kept: in our secure form and contact system (Zoho).
- Why: only to call you back and offer support.
- Emails: no scores or answers are emailed.
- How long: if you ask HHIF for help, your details and anything you chose to share are kept until HHIF’s website administrator deletes them.
- To delete it: you can ask for them to be deleted at any time by emailing support@hearthealthindia.org.
A gentle but important reminder
This self-check is to help you understand yourself and find a next step.
- It is not a diagnosis.
- HHIF does not diagnose, does not give counselling or therapy, and does not watch answers as they come in.
- HHIF is not an emergency service. If you might harm yourself or you are in danger, call 112 now or go to the nearest emergency department.
You may have spent a lot of time taking care of your heart. It’s okay to ask for some help taking care of how you feel, too.
This is a self-check, not a diagnosis. Educational information only, not medical advice.
HHIF is a patient community, not a medical service, and not an emergency service. If you need a doctor, please see a doctor. Emergency: call 112. To talk to a trained counsellor: Tele-MANAS 14416 or 1-800-891-4416 (Government of India, free, 24×7).
Written by people who have lived it. Reviewed by Ram Khandelwal, Founder.
The questions come from established screening questionnaires: GAD-7 and PHQ-9 (developed with a grant from Pfizer, free to use) and PC-PTSD-5 (US National Center for PTSD, public domain). GAD-7 and PHQ-9 are shown word for word. Part 3 is adapted from the PC-PTSD-5: we changed only the example events to heart-related ones, and the adapted version has not been separately validated.
Questionnaire credits: GAD-7 and PHQ-9 (English for India) developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, Kurt Kroenke and colleagues, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc. No permission required to reproduce, translate, display or distribute. PC-PTSD-5 (version 2022): Prins, A., Bovin, M. J., Kimerling, R., Kaloupek, D. G., Marx, B. P., Pless Kaiser, A. & Schnurr, P. P., National Center for PTSD, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Public domain. Part 3 of this check is adapted from it (example events changed).
About the questions: PHQ-9 and GAD-7 (phqscreeners.com) and PC-PTSD-5 (U.S. National Center for PTSD).
Science: American Heart Association scientific statements, Circulation 2021 (Levine et al., the mind-heart-body connection) and Circulation 2014 (Lichtman et al., depression after acute coronary syndrome).
