Authors: S. Taylor, B. Cox (1998)
It is very important that you read these instructions carefully so that you will be able to answer the questions that follow. The purpose of this questionnaire is to measure your level of fear of anxiety-related sensations. There are many anxiety-related. sensations, including the following: palpitations (pounding heart or accelerated heart rate), sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain or discomfort, nausea, dizziness, feelings of unreality, chills, and hot flashes. People differ in their fears of these sensations; some people have little or no fear, others have mild or moderately severe fears, while others have very strong fears.
Anxiety sensations are feared if a person believes that these sensations have bad consequences. For example, people are frightened of palpitations if they believe these sensations could lead to a heart attack. People are frightened of dizziness if they believe that this sensation could mean that they are going crazy. People are frightened of publicly observable anxiety reactions (e.g., blushing or trembling) if they believe these reactions could cause others to ridicule or reject them.
We would like you to do two things for each of the items on the following pages:
1. Imagine that you are experiencing the sensation. Try to imagine this as vividly as possible.
2. Using the scale provided, rate the likelihood that if YOU experienced the sensation, it would lead to something bad happening to you, such as dying, going crazy, losing control, or being ridiculed or rejected by others. There are no right or wrong answers, and all responses will remain anonymous.
Please note: We are not assessing whether or not you experience these sensations as a result of being anxious. We want to assess whether you believe that anxiety-related sensations would lead to something bad to happen to you.