Stress Scale

“It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reac­tion to it.” - Hans Selye, Aus­tri­an-Cana­di­an endocri­nol­o­gist, pio­neered exis­tence of bio­log­i­cal stress

One of the most com­mon con­ver­sa­tions, in my work with high per­form­ing exec­u­tives + CEOs, is about man­ag­ing the lev­el of respon­si­bil­i­ty and stress. Every­one thrives at a dif­fer­ent stress scale lev­el, and some stress can bring us to high­er lev­els of per­for­mance. But the source – and inten­si­ty – also affects us dif­fer­ent­ly. It’s a very fine line between max­i­mum per­for­mance, and over­loaded meltdown.

There’s a way to mea­sure how much is too much. The Social Read­just­ment Rat­ing Scale (SRRS) is a list of 43 stress­ful life events that can con­tribute to ill­ness — also known as the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, after psy­chi­a­trists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe, who first pub­lished the list in 1967.

Stress Scale

“A con­di­tion or feel­ing expe­ri­enced when a per­son per­ceives that demands exceed the per­son­al and social resources the indi­vid­ual is able to mobilize…when we feel that things are out of con­trol”. — Richard Lazarus, Behav­iour­al Psychologist

Each life event (in the past year) is giv­en a score, the total of which gives an esti­mate of how stress can affect health. Score more than 300 and we’re at the high­est risk for ill­ness. Under 150, the risk is slight. Pre­dictably, the death of some­one close, loss of a job and a move are on the list. Sur­pris­ing­ly, so are vaca­tions. My wife feels the stress, I know, because there’s so much to do to get ready for one.

When we’re absorbed and engaged in man­ag­ing these things, we don’t take time to notice their effect. But when the small­er things stack up, or a big one hits, the stress becomes destruc­tive rather than con­struc­tive. And then we are vulnerable.

Most peo­ple can han­dle high­er lev­els of stress for a week or so. But, stay there too long, and it will impact your health, your sleep, your abil­i­ty to focus, and your relationships.

And you often can’t tell until it’s too late.

At the very least, you need to make sure you reg­u­lar­ly man­age the basics: to sleep, exer­cise and eat well. Beyond that if the stress is too much – for too long – you must find a way to reduce the inten­si­ty, and to get back on your feet. That includes seek­ing pro­fes­sion­al help.

The Chal­lenge

• Fig­ure out your stress score on the Scale. Click here for the auto­mat­ed ver­sion, or man­u­al­ly using the list below.
• If you are in the healthy zone, congratulations
• If you’re not, fig­ure out what you can do to bring it down soon

I’d like to acknowl­edge Gra­ham Robins, CEO of A&A Cus­toms Bro­ker | Founder at Bor­der­Bud­dy for shar­ing this won­der­ful tool. 

Social Read­just­ment Rat­ing Scale

Add up the num­ber of ​“Life Change Units” that apply to events that have hap­pened in the past year. The final score will give a rough esti­mate of how stress affects health.

• Death of a spouse — 100 Life Change Units
• Divorce — 73 Life Change Units
• Mar­i­tal sep­a­ra­tion — 65 Life Change Units
• Impris­on­ment — 63 Life Change Units
• Death of a close fam­i­ly mem­ber — 63 Life Change Units
• Per­son­al injury or ill­ness - 53 Life Change Units
• Mar­riage — 50 Life Change Units
• Dis­missal from work — 47 Life Change Units
• Mar­i­tal rec­on­cil­i­a­tion — 45 Life Change Units
• Retire­ment — 45 Life Change Units
• Change in health of fam­i­ly mem­ber - 44 Life Change Units
• Preg­nan­cy — 40 Life Change Units
• Sex­u­al dif­fi­cul­ties ‑39 Life Change Units
• Gain a new fam­i­ly mem­ber — 39 Life Change Units
• Busi­ness read­just­ment — 39 Life Change Units
• Change in finan­cial state — 38 Life Change Units
• Death of a close friend — 37 Life Change Units
• Change to dif­fer­ent line of work - 36 Life Change Units
• Change in fre­quen­cy of argu­ments — 35 Life Change Units
• Major mort­gage — 32 Life Change Units
• Fore­clo­sure of mort­gage or loan — 30 Life Change Units
• Change in respon­si­bil­i­ties at work - 29 Life Change Units
• Child leav­ing home — 29 Life Change Units
• Trou­ble with in-laws — 29 Life Change Units
• Out­stand­ing per­son­al achieve­ment — 28 Life Change Units
• Spouse starts or stops work — 26 Life Change Units
• Begin­ning or end school — 26 Life Change Units
• Change in liv­ing con­di­tions — 25 Life Change Units
• Revi­sion of per­son­al habits — 24 Life Change Units
• Trou­ble with boss — 23 Life Change Units
• Change in work­ing hours or con­di­tions — 20 Life Change Units
• Change in res­i­dence — 20 Life Change Units
• Change in schools - 20 Life Change Units
• Change in recre­ation — 19 Life Change Units
• Change in church activ­i­ties — 19 Life Change Units
• Change in social activ­i­ties - 18 Life Change Units
• Minor mort­gage or loan - 17 Life Change Units
• Change in sleep­ing habits — 16 Life Change Units
• Change in num­ber of fam­i­ly reunions — 15 Life Change Units
• Change in eat­ing habits — 15 Life Change Units
• Vaca­tion — 13 Life Change Units
• Major Hol­i­day - 12 Life Change Units
• Minor vio­la­tion of law — 11 Life Change Units

Scor­ing:

• 300+: At risk of illness
• 150 – 299: Risk of ill­ness is mod­er­ate (reduced by 30% from the above risk)
• <150: Only have a slight risk of illness