Your favorite ‘Winnie the Pooh’ character could reveal your mental health: viral test
What does “Winnie the Pooh” say about you?
A new “Pooh pathology test” aims to show what mental health disorder you might be suffering from based on the character you most resemble in the classic cartoon franchise.
Professors Dr. Sarah E. Shea and Dr. Kevin Gordon studied seven characters from the television series and “concluded that each of them could be associated with a definitive psychiatric diagnosis.”
According to the professors, there are seven clear conditions shown in “Pooh,” including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia.
IDRlabs.com created a questionnaire based on the teacher claimsasking participants to answer 33 questions to see which character they most resembled, and therefore what condition they might have.
The test asks users to respond to statements on a seven-point scale, from “agree” to “disagree.” Statements include: “My thoughts jump from one topic to another with little consistency or control” and “When I’m alone, I sometimes feel like someone or something is watching me.”
The creators of the questionnaire note that the results “should not be construed as professional or certified advice of any kind.” However, the proof has gone viral on TikTok and many on Twitter are too amazed at the precision.
Below are seven “Winnie the Pooh” characters and the mental health condition they’re closely associated with:
Pooh: attention deficit disorder (ADD)
Examinees who are most like Pooh are described as “absentminded, forgetful, distracted, and disorganized.”
The character “easily gets lost in his own world and loses track of what he’s doing” thanks to his “short attention span” and has “obsessive fixations,” experts say.
“Pooh’s attempts to get what he wants are impulsive and ill-considered,” they said. “When he gets something he wants (ie honey), he keeps getting stimulated to the point of supersaturation (ie binge eating).”
They concluded that: “Pooh is kind-hearted and well-intentioned, but he is also not within the limits of normal cognitive functioning.”
Sucker: Anxiety Disorder
Pooh’s friend Piglet spends a lot of time “worrying excessively” about a “plenty of things” and “finds it hard to control his fears.”
Those who are more like Piglet may tend to “overthink and get caught up in negative thought loops” or “expect the worst even when there’s no apparent reason to.”
“His anxiety is always with him, making him uncomfortable in a wide range of situations,” the questionnaire concluded.
The creators of the quiz added that she “frequently anticipates negative results and stutters because she is so afraid.”
Rabbit: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
People with OCD want everything to be in its “proper place” and get “upset” when things change, the test’s creators said. They want “everything in order” and feel that “everything depends on this”.
This mental health disorder is apparently suffered by Rabbit’s character, who “has recurring and persistent urges that everything has to be perfect.”
“He feels compelled to live his obsessions and enforce rules that must be strictly enforced,” said those responsible for the test, giving examples such as keeping his garden in order and constantly cleaning his house.
However, they added that “we never see any acute danger that Rabbit actually avoids with these behaviors. The mental habits Rabbit has formed are clearly excessive in comparison to the dangers they are meant to neutralize.
Eeyore: persistent depressive disorder
The quiz creators claimed that the famously depressed Eeyore “is down on most days.” They added that he “never tries to have a positive outlook on life, does not try to be cheerful, and experiences his depression as a predetermined state, rather than episodic.”
So it’s no surprise that those most like Eeyore are likely to struggle with “chronically low moods” and “feelings of hopelessness.” They are also likely to “see the negative” and “expect bad things to happen.”
Tigger: attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (ADHD)
Meanwhile, the quiz claims that people who are like Tigger can suffer from ADHD.
“Tigger’s abnormally high energy level causes him to interrupt and intrude on others, as well as skip answers before a question has been completed,” the test states. “Her inability for him to learn from the scary and dangerous incidents he gets himself into means he bounces back almost immediately and is always ready to look for the next source of excitement.”
People with this result may have a “high stimulus threshold and trouble feeling fear” and “overconfidence” that can lead to “dangerous and reckless behavior.”
Roo: Autism
Roo is “mentally locked” and “lacks awareness of what’s going on around him,” the test stated, saying respondents who resembled the baby kangaroo could be on the spectrum.
“He is unaware of the social cues and subtexts. He alternates between overzealous and reckless behavior on the one hand, and sitting impassively in his mother’s bag on the other,” the test creators theorized. “He has difficulty understanding and expressing emotions. In conversations, he repeats what is said to him without understanding the meaning of the words.
Christopher Robin: Schizophrenia
Finally, the experts also claimed that Christopher Robin shows signs of a mental health disorder.
Because he believes he can talk to animals and has created a “whole fantasy world in which only he lives”, they claim he could be suffering from schizophrenia.
People with schizophrenia are likely to hear voices when alone and have “impaired memory, awareness, and perception.”
“[Christopher Robin] probably has two distinct ego states: an ordinary one in the real world and a magical one in the Hundred Acre Wood,” the test states. “His excessive cognitive fluidity of him created this world and all the characters in it, a theater in which he plays all the parts.”