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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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