Stress?

In my Human Growth & Development class on Monday night, we each had to take a small self-test to determine our stressful life events/health impact ratio. There were about sixty statements and each was assigned a point value. We were to circle any statements that applied to the last twelve months of our lives.

I cruised through the list chuckling to myself because it seemed that I'd have a shorter go of it if I circled the does-not-apply answers instead. I wondered whether I should multiply the points associated with items that I experienced more than once. In the end, I added up the sums and my total was a respectable 1035. I figured that this would land me in the high-moderate range.

I noticed that the woman to my right had a total of 51.

The instructor put the scoring key on the overhead projector. The first range was "0-149" and the health impact was "none". I thought, "They must have lots of sublevels." She uncovered the rest of the sheet and I noticed that there were only three levels:
0-149
150-299
300+, at which point the health impact risk was >80%

My astonishment was utter. I said, "But, I could easily argue that I'm the healthiest I've been in many years, maybe ever, if you factor in emotional health."

She said, "And that is the next point I was going to make. Stress and life events are largely unavoidable. What makes us healthy or unhealthy is how we well we cope. Coping skills change throughout life and are a function of inherent qualities, learned behaviors, and acquired knowledge. Evidently, you are doing pretty well in all three categories."

OK. I'll roll with that. And I'll also now let myself off the hook for wanting more rest than normal. I guess being a bit tired is to be expected when one's score exceeds the author's limit by three-plus times. I never did add multiples for the items that occurred more than once...

~M

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