Are You Stressed Out About Being Stressed?
Sutter Center for Integrative Health
Are You Stressed Out About Being Stressed?
How Stress Management May Be Your Best Medicine
by Denise Dempsey and Ron Cotterel, M.D.
Is stress making you sick? In this lightning-paced age of long work hours, skyrocketing prices, sensory over-stimulation, and political turmoil, it's hard to imagine NOT being stressed out. But breathe a sigh of relief! Science is now showing that if we are smart about how we cope with stress, not only can we feel better but we can also prevent and even treat illnesses.
What Is Stress?
The term stress is commonly used to describe those factors in our lives that affect us in adverse ways. In other words, the bad things that happen to us. These are more properly known as stressors. Some examples of stressors might be as serious as divorce, a death in the family, or a dwindling bank account, or as trivial as bumper-to-bumper traffic on the commute home from work. In addition to the negative things that happen to us, stressors can also take the form of positive events like weddings, graduations and having a new baby. Even taking a vacation can be stressful!
The term stress is also used to describe how we respond to the stressors, a process known as the stress response--or in simple terms, a person's reaction to his or her environment. In the time of our distant ancestors, the stress response served a useful purpose. It produced a physical reaction that might be useful in, say, running from a tiger. The digestion slows down (who needs to digest food when you're about to be eaten by a tiger?!), the heart rate and blood pressure elevate, and the muscles act more efficiently. You may have heard of this being called the “fight or flight response.” In more scientific terms, the stress response is a complex physiologic process involving the sympathetic nervous system; the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands; and the release of powerful stress hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine.
However primitive their origins, in modern times stressors are still with us day in and day out, producing symptoms ranging from minor emotional anxiety and muscle tension in the neck and shoulders to high blood pressure, chest pain or shortness of breath. There is also growing evidence that prolonged exposure to stressors without effective stress management can contribute to chronic diseases such as depression, hypertension, heart disease, and peptic ulcers.
How Stress Is Affecting Your Life - The Personal Life Events Analysis*
Chronic stress takes its toll on our bodies and minds. The more stress we have at any one time, the higher the likelihood we will suffer from a stress-related illness. How can you tell if stress is affecting your health? One place to start is by taking the following "stress test."
Event Value
Death of spouse 100
Divorce 73
Marital separation 65
Jail term 63
Death of close family member 63
Personal injury or illness 53
Marriage 50
Fired from job 47
Marital reconciliation 45
Retirement 45
Change in family member's health 44
Pregnancy 40
Sexual difficulties 39
Addition to family 39
Business readjustment 39
Change in financial status 38
Death of close friend 37
Career change 36
Change in number of marital arguments 35
Mortgage or loan over $10,000 31
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
Change in work responsibilities 29
Son or daughter leaving home 29
Trouble with in-laws 29
Outstanding personal achievement 28
Spouse begins or ceases working 26
Starting or finishing school 26
Change in living conditions 25
Revision of personal habits 24
Trouble with boss 23
Change in work hours, conditions 20
Change in residence 20
Change in schools 20
Change in recreational habits 19
Change in church activities 19
Change in social activities 18
Mortgage or loan under $10,000 17
Change in sleeping habits 16
Change in number of family gatherings 15
Change in eating habits 15
Vacation 13
Christmas season 12
Minor violation of the law 11
To learn the level of stress in your life, circle the value at the right of each of the following events if it has occurred within the past 12 months. Then add up all the circled values. The higher the total score, the greater the role that stress plays in your life and the higher likelihood that it is compromising your health. If your total score is more than 150, it would be smart to find ways to reduce or manage stress in your daily life.