Translate Deenz Separation Anxiety Scale

Deenz Separation Anxiety Scale

<p>People tend to think of separation anxiety as something that belongs to childhood — a kid crying at daycare drop-off, nothing more. But plenty of adults carry a version of this too, and it rarely gets named for what it is. It can look like checking your phone every few minutes when your partner is out with friends, feeling genuinely sick to your stomach before a family member's flight, or planning your whole week around not being left alone in the house. The Deenz Separation Anxiety Scale (DSAS) was built to give this experience an actual shape, instead of leaving it as a vague sense of "I get weird when people leave."</p>
<p>Deenz Separation Anxiety Scale (DSAS) is a 30 short statements covering the everyday thoughts, physical reactions, and habits that show up around separation from people you're attached to — partners, close friends, family. You rate each one from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree), and most people are done in under 10 minutes. What you get back is a total score from 30 to 150, plus a breakdown showing where your particular version of this anxiety tends to concentrate.</p>
<p>That breakdown matters because separation anxiety doesn't look the same from person to person. Some people spend all their anxiety upfront — dreading the separation before it's even happened. Others are fine right up until the moment they're actually alone, and then it hits as real physical panic: racing heart, tight chest, trouble sleeping. Others cope by never quite letting the separation happen — constant texting, tracking, following up, making sure they always know exactly where their person is. The DSAS-30 splits these into three subscales — Anticipatory Distress, Somatic & Cognitive Panic, and Proximity Seeking — so the results say something more specific than just "high anxiety."</p>

Every item is scored on the same 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) scale. Item 18 — "I'm fine spending a long stretch of time away from people I'm close to." — is worded in the opposite direction from the rest of the scale, so it's reverse-scored (1↔5, 2↔4, 3 stays the same) before totaling. This keeps a high number meaning the same thing across all 30 items: more separation anxiety, not less.
The 30 items split evenly into three subscales, ten items each:
Anticipatory Distress: items 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 (raw score range 10–50)
Somatic & Cognitive Panic: items 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29 (raw score range 10–50)
Proximity Seeking: items 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30 (raw score range 10–50)
Add up all 30 items for a total raw score somewhere between 30 and 150. Each subscale also gets converted to a 0–100 scale on its own, which makes it easier to see at a glance which pattern is driving someone's score.

I worry about being separated from people I love.

I feel physically sick when someone close to me leaves.

I check in often just to make sure people are okay.

The idea of being alone makes me anxious.

Being alone fills me with dread.

I need to know where the people close to me are.

I worry that loved ones will get hurt while they're away.

Separation makes it hard for me to eat or sleep.

I avoid situations where I'd have to be alone.

I dread traveling by myself.

My heart races when I lose touch with someone close.

I send several messages in a row if I don't hear back.

I worry no one will be there for me if I'm alone.

Being away from home makes me feel unsafe.

I'd rather stay home than go somewhere alone.

I worry about losing touch with people in the future.

I feel physically tense when I'm away from my support system.

I'm fine spending a long stretch of time away from people I'm close to.

I get nervous planning trips without my family.

I panic when I'm left on my own.

I try to stay physically close to the people I love.

I worry that distance will weaken my relationships.

It's hard to breathe when I'm saying goodbye to someone.

I ask for constant updates when someone I love is traveling.

I'm afraid of losing contact with the people who matter to me.

My mind races with bad thoughts when I'm by myself.

I feel a strong urge to follow loved ones when they leave.

It worries me when someone I love mentions moving away.

I feel physically drained when I'm separated from loved ones.

I rely on others to come with me for everyday errands.