Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale

The Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS) is a self-administered test instrument for measuring the distress, intrusiveness, and frequency of all kinds of unusual perceptual experiences in the general population. It covers experiences that are often characterized as psychotic or dissociative, but also other experiences. All of these experiences occur in the general population, although generally at low frequency. Of the 32 experiences in the test, the least common one is "Do you ever hear voices commenting on what you are thinking or doing?"

So how do you use it? From the publisher website (link below) download and print the article and appendix (the test). Fill out the test. Give it and the article to your therapist. Beyond counting the number of experiences marked YES, scoring the test is really tedious, so let your therapist do it.

The Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS): A New Validated Measure of Anomalous Perceptual Experience

My score on the CAPS was 25 out of 32. That is well above the mean for psychotic inpatients but in the general (nonclinical) population about 1% also have a score this high and are not psychotic. I am in that 1% and I am not in the least psychotic; I have DID. Perhaps many other high scorers in the general population also have DID. What I was surprised to learn from the CAPS is the extent to which I have anomalous perceptions above and beyond my DID symptoms.

Note that these are anomalous perceptions, not delusions. The test is entirely subjective, so who is to say what is real and what is delusion? Most therapists who treat DID think the voices we hear are real.

Hello Una!

I printed this out and will be taking it to my T today. She loves that I bring her this stuff.

If I count the questions I put 'yes' to, I got 24 out of the 32. o.O;;

I'm with you on what is 'real' and what isn't, and who is to say one way or the other? I mean, if everyone in the world had alters, wouldn't those who didn't be seen as weird and mentally ill? Hmm. I always think of those things. What we preceive as every day life is 'real', and that changes with each person. If a schizophrenic person in the grip of an episode is 'stabbed' and feels pain, who's to say that isn't real for them? If I see little bugs skittering on the desk, who says it's not 'real'? I may not be able to touch them and no one else may be able to see them, but in my head those little bugs are real.

It's a big question to answer, one I like to debate with people.

LinaeveWorkman wrote:I printed this out and will be taking it to my T today. She loves that I bring her this stuff.

Good therapist.

LinaeveWorkman wrote:If I count the questions I put 'yes' to, I got 24 out of the 32. o.O;;

I'm with you on what is 'real' and what isn't, and who is to say one way or the other?

Were you surprised by your score? I was! I didn't think I was that unusual. Many of my perceptions that are not shared by others turn out to be accurate. Like many mothers, I know when my kids are getting viruses because their body odor changes. I am usually the first to smell and hear plumbing leaks, etc.

LinaeveWorkman wrote:If I see little bugs skittering on the desk, who says it's not 'real'? I may not be able to touch them and no one else may be able to see them, but in my head those little bugs are real.

"of course it's happening inside your head harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"-Dumbledore