How Stressed Are You: Try the Stress Scale

The breakup of a major relationship is one of the most stressful events you can have in your life. I’ve been reading an excellent book, Stress Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Wellness, by Edward Charlesworth and Ronald Nathan, which goes into detail about how to handle stress.

The death of a partner is the only thing that rates higher than divorce (and I would imagine any serious breakup would be almost as high) on the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale, which was developed as a way to measure the effects of major life changes on our lives. It ranks life events according to their intensity and the time people take to adjust to them. You look at how many stressors you have experienced in the year and add up the score – 150-300 is indicative
of normal stress, anything over 300 is seen as an indicator of someone much more likely to contract an illness afterward – accidents, alcoholism, cancer, or something less serious, like a cold or flu.

Try this yourself: Your stress score

I have listed the life events that most likely happen in the year you have a major breakup.

1. Complete the chart and work out your score.

Event	Stress Value	Number of times you experienced this in the last year	Score
Divorce	73	x ________	= _____________
Marital separation from mate	65	x ________	= _____________
Major personal injury or illness	53	x ________	= _____________
Marriage	50	x ________	= _____________
Marital reconciliation with mate	45	x ________	= _____________
Major change in behavior or health of a family member	45	x ________	= _____________
Sexual difficulties	39	x ________	= _____________
Major change in financial state	38	x ________	= _____________
Changing to different line of work	36	x ________	= _____________
Major change in number of arguments with spouse	35	x ________	= _____________
Taking on a mortgage greater than $10,000	31	x ________	= _____________
In-law troubles	29	x ________	= _____________
Major change in living conditions	25	x ________	= _____________
Revision of personal habits	24	x ________	= _____________
Major change in working hours or conditions	20	x ________	= _____________
Changes in residence	20	x ________	= _____________
Major change in usual type or amount of recreation	19	x ________	= _____________
Major change in social activities	19	x ________	= _____________
Taking on a loan more than $10,000	17	x ________	= _____________
Major change in sleeping habits	16	x ________	= _____________
Major change in the number of family gatherings	15	x ________	= _____________
Change in eating habits	15	x ________	= _____________
		Your Total Score

If you have a score that is over 300, you are going
to need to be very careful with your health and stress management over the
next few months.
If you have a score of between 150-300, you are in a
better situation, but you still need to manage the stress in your life to
make sure you stay healthy.

I’ll be writing more on stress in the next few weeks, and how you can deal with it. I have a diary entry about the signs of stress I had when I was thinking about breaking up with my ex-husband. If you have insomnia, you might want to check out the post on sleeping badly and what you can do about it.