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Main Causes of Stress

In order to discover the main causes of stress we first need to define what stress is.

The word stress comes from Middle English stresse, hardship and partly from Old French estrece, narrowness, oppression. Definitions include:

1.	the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.
2.	Physiology. a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.
3.	physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension: Worry over his job and his wife's health put him under a great stress.

How To Deal With Stress

Stress is often defined with our fight or flight mechanisms as in definition 2. We feel threatened by something (real or imagined) and our body goes into its fight or flight response. Of course many times fighting or running from the situation is either impossible or inappropriate so we have to find new ways of dealing with stress.

According to statistics, courtesy of the American Psychological Association (APA).

• Fifty-four percent of Americans are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives. (APA Survey 2004)
• Two thirds of Americans say they are likely to seek help for stress. (APA Survey 2004)

Main Causes of Stress

This chart details the main causes of stress and gives you a way to test how many of these stresses you have been under.

1. Death of spouse/partner	100
2. Divorce	73
3. Separation from spouse/partner	63
4. Going to prison or similar	65
5. Death of close family member	63
6. Major personal illness/injury	53
7. Getting married	50
8. Redundancy/being fired.	47
9. Reconciliation with spouse/partner	45
10. Retirement from work	45
11. Major illness of family member	44
12. Pregnancy.	40
13. Sexual difficulties	39
14. New family member arriving (birth, parent(coming to stay indefinitely, adoption)	39
15. Major work adjustment of any sort	38
16. Major change in financial status (up or down)	37
17. Close friend dies	36
18. Career change	36
19. Major change in number of arguments with spouse/partner	35
20. Taking out a mortgage/heavy loan	31
21. Difficulty with mortgage repayments	30
22. Major change in work situation	29
23. Child leaving home	29
24. Trouble with in-laws	29
25. Outstanding personal success	28
26. Spouse/partner starting/leaving work	26
27. Starting or stopping formal education	26
28. Major change in living conditions	25
29. Change in personal routines	24
30. Trouble with the boss	23
31. Major change in work conditions	20
32. Moving house/home	20
33. Changing to a new school	20
34. Major change in leisure habits	19
35. Major change community activities	19
36. Major change in social activities	18
37. Taking out a small mortgage/loan	17
38. Major change in sleeping habits	16
39. Major change in number of family meetings	15
40. Major change in eating habits	15
41. Going on holiday	13
42. Christmas	12
43. Minor law violations (involving fines etc.)	11

RESULTS
No Particular problems (Ordinary Stress)	0-149
Mild Crisis Level. 37% chance of problems	150-199
Moderate Crisis Level. 51% chance of problems	200-299
Major Crisis Level. 79% chance of problems	300+

Currently, I don’t personally feel that I am under a great deal of stress but when looked at these main causes of stress and took this test my score was much higher than I’d predicted. We don’t always look at things clearly when we’re stressed. And we don’t always realize how some situations may affect us more than we think.

If your score was 150 or over, I would encourage you to try some of our coping techniques and reach out to friends, family, doctors or other support systems that will help you alleviate some of the stress you may be feeling.

Informative Article on the Main Causes of Stress