How Selfora works
We believe the honest version of this is also the most useful one. Here is exactly what we do and don't do.
What our assessments are built on
Each assessment covers the same symptom domains that validated clinical screening instruments use, informed by the DSM-5 symptom criteria and instrument families such as ASRS (ADHD), PHQ (depression), GAD (anxiety), OCI (OCD), PCL (trauma), MDQ (bipolar spectrum), AQ (autism traits), LSAS (social anxiety), ISI (insomnia) and PSS (stress). We write our own questions to cover these domains rather than copying any published instrument.
How scoring works
Your answers roll up into symptom domains. Each domain is normalised to a 0–100 score and placed in a band: minimal, mild, moderate, or elevated. The overall band is the weighted mean of the core symptom domains; context, differential and strength domains are shown separately, not folded into the headline. The engine is deterministic, the same answers always produce the same Selfora.
What screening tools can and can't do
Screening instruments as a class are designed to be sensitive, good at flagging patterns worth a closer look, but they trade some specificity for that. They can be wrong in both directions, and many medical and life circumstances produce overlapping patterns. That is why a positive screen is a reason to talk to a professional, never a diagnosis.
Our language boundary
We never say you have a condition, and we never claim an accuracy percentage. We say your responses are consistent with, or in the range associated with, a pattern. This isn't lawyer-speak, it's the truthful description of what a self-report screen can say.
Condition content is reviewed for clinical accuracy. Published articles carry a reviewing-clinician byline with credentials.