The following is a list of various symptoms of stress. Count how many of these you are currently experiencing, or have experienced over the past month.
Physical:
• Tightness in the chest pain / palpitations indigestion breathlessness nausea muscle twitches
• Unexplained aches and pains headaches becoming
• Skin conditions
• Recurrence of previous illness/allergies constipation/diarrhoea weight loss/weight gain
• Change in menstrual cycle
• Sleep problems/tiredness
Emotional:
• Mood swings
• Feeling anxious
• Feeling tense
• Feelings of anger
• Feeling guilty
• Feelings of shame
• Lack of enthusiasm
• More cynical
• Feeling out of control
• Feeling helpless
• Decrease in confidence/self esteem poor concentration
Behavioural:
• Drop in work performance more accident prone drinking and smoking more overeating/loss of appetite change in sleeping patterns poor time
• Management unable to relax social withdrawal
• Loss of interest in sex
• Poor judgement
• Inability to express feelings overreacting
Psychological:
• “I am a failure”
• “I should be able to cope”
• “why is everyone getting at me?” “no one understands” “I don’t know what to do”
• “I can’t cope”
• “what’s the point?”
• “I can’t get on top of things”
• “I keep forgetting where I put things” loss of judgement
Stress Rating
Add up your score and check below:
0 – 3 symptoms.
You are unlikely to be stressed.
4 – 7 symptoms.
You are experiencing mild stress and are not coping as well as you could. You need to make some changes to your life.
8 – 11 symptoms.
You are experiencing a moderate degree of stress. You need to make major changes to your life.
Over 12 symptoms.
You are experiencing excessive stress and need to take urgent action.
