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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
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