Interactive Tool: What Is Your Stress Level?

What does this tool help you learn?

Stress from life changes

Major life changes are some of the biggest causes of stress, both positive and negative. Have you had any life changes recently? Have there been any changes at home or work, or in your relationships or finances?

• Use this tool to get a rough estimate of your current stress level based on the number of life changes you've had recently. Your score will also show if you're more likely to have stress-related health problems in the near future.
• After using the tool, you can explore tips and videos about ways to cope with stress. Choosing even one tip to try may help you begin to lower your stress—and your risk for stress-related health problems.

Get started by checking all events that have happened in the past 6 months.

Adapted with permission from: Miller MA, Rahe RH (1997). "Life changes scaling for the 1990s." Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 43(3): 279–292.

What does your score mean?

Your score can help you to better understand how much stress your life changes may be causing you. Your score will appear as one of the following:

• You have low stress.
• You have mild stress.
• You have moderate stress.
• You have high stress.

If you have a moderate or high amount of stress, you are more likely to have a stress-related illness in the next 12 to 18 months.

As with all screening tools, though, the results of this tool are only an estimate. Everyone responds differently to stress. The way you deal with stress depends on several things. It depends on how well you cope with change (resiliency), how significant the life events are to you, and how much support you get from family and friends. And there may be other events that stress you that are not included in this tool.

What's next?

You can't change what has happened, but you can explore healthy ways to cope with life's stresses. And remember, you can start small. Browse and find just one tip for coping that you think you could easily do. Then give it a try.

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