satone.com The American Dream Portal. Measuring Your Stress Level

Measuring Your Stress Level



If you've been wondering what degree of stress you live under,
here is a quick way to get a fair estimate. Dr. Thomas and Dr.
Richard Rahe composed a table of events and the amount of stress
they cause. The most interesting feature of this table is that
the people they interviewed actually told them, how they could
rate specific events for the stress they cause, so this is human
rather than a medical appraisal of the degree of stress those
events caused  As you get used to certain changes in your life,
they become less stressful, so these ratings will not be
entirely accurate for you. If, for example, you take a vacation
only every five years, you might rate it a 25 instead of a 13.
The common starting point used was a standard rate of 50 for
marriage for all the people interviewed.

The combined total of both positive and negative stresses in the
past few months will give you an idea of your current stress
level. Keep in mind that people have varying stress-handling
capacities and this table does not take into account such
regular stresses as recreational drug use, alcoholism, chronic
illness, allergy, battering and random stresses such as car
accidents, contest winning to the dreaded tax audit. This is
presented as information only and should not be used for
diagnostic or treatment purposes.


                       EVENT

- Death of spouse          100
- Divorce     73
- Marital separation    65
- Jail term     63
- Death of a close family member  63
- Personal Injury or illness   53
- Marriage     50
- Fired at work     47
- Marital reconciliation   45
- Retirement     45
- Change In health of family member  44
- Pregnancy     40
- Sexual difficulties    39
- Addition of new family member   39
- Business of adjustment   39
- Change in financial status   38
- Death of a close friend   37
- Change to different line of work  36
- Change in number of arguments with spouse 35
- Mortgage over $10,000    31
- Foreclosure of mortgage or loan  30
- Change in job responsibilities  29
- Son or daughter leaving home   29
- Trouble with in-laws    29
- Outstanding personal achievement  28
- Wife or husband begins or stops work  26
- Beginning or end of school   26
- Change in living conditions   25
- Revision of personal habits   24
- Trouble with boss    23
- Change in work hours or conditions  20
- Change in residence    20
- Change in school    20
- Change in recreational activities  19
- Change in  church activities   19
- Mortgage or loan under $10,000  17
- Change in sleeping habits   16
- Change in number of family get-togethers 15
- Change in eating habits   15
- Vacation     13
- Christmas     12
- Minor violations of the law   11