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:

The physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.
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.
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

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

Top Ten Causes

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

Additional Major Causes of Stress are below

If you add up the points that apply to you,
you will be able to see how much stress is affecting your life.

11. Major illness of family member

12. Pregnancy.

13. Sexual difficulties

14. New family member arriving (birth, parent(coming to stay indefinitely, adoption)

15. Major work adjustment of any sort

16. Major change in financial status (up or down)

17. Close friend dies

18. Career change

19. Major change in number of arguments with spouse/partner

20. Taking out a mortgage/heavy loan

21. Difficulty with mortgage repayments

22. Major change in work situation

23. Child leaving home

24. Trouble with in-laws

25. Outstanding personal success

26. Spouse/partner starting/leaving work

27. Starting or stopping formal education

28. Major change in work conditions

29. Moving house/home

30. Changing to a new school

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