Global Assessment of Functioning

DSM IV - Axis V: Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale

Consider psychological, social, and occupational functioning on a hypothetical continuum of mental health-illness. Do not include impairment in functioning due to physical (or environmental) limitations.

Scores range from 100 for superior functioning in a wide range of activities, a person who problem-solves well and who is sought out by others due to positive personal qualities, to 0 for inadequate information regarding the subject. At the lower end are symptoms which include self-harm, inability to maintain minimal personal hygiene, lack of employment or friends.

I think my score might be 50 (2010):

Serious symptoms (e.g., suicidal ideation) OR any serious impairment in social, occupational, or school functioning (e.g., no friends, unable to keep a job.)

It is difficult to score accurately, as some parts may fit, but not others, and in some ways I have managed to 'achieve' some unusual things in life, like world travel, and I have managed to maintain one friend for more than 10 years now. I have spent a lot of time reading, thinking and writing in relation to this 'psychoanalysis', and I continue to express myself creatively through my website. How would that affect my score? I have cared for injured possums (with successful results). But I am very isolated, cut off from the human community and have only left the house a few times in more than a year and a half, and still wish for death on a daily basis.