After completing the Holmes – Rahe stress inventory, I scored 236 points which put me in the middle category which suggests I have a 50% chance of a breakdown in the next 2 years. This gave me a revelation that I need to start adapting some stress dealing mechanisms as I have a lot of stress on myself and upon thinking, am not good dealing with it. This score has given me the realisation that I should start taking more care of my mind and body and start letting myself rely on help from others to avoid the outcome that this test is suggesting i am at risk of. However, I felt that the test was aimed at older, more independent individuals and a test targeted for young adults could be more accurate. I also believe that stress can be due to temporary issues, for example, at the moment I am planning my trip to New York for the summer. This stress will be gone in a few weeks.
i believe that the majority of my stress derives from being a student and this test did not state anything about that as so I believe it was fairly inaccurate. Another area that brings me a great deal of stress is my part time job in a hotel and by working I have limited my time for social activities, studying and time for myself – neither of these factors are mentioned. A sign of my stress is my sleep pattern. On an average night, I get around 6 hours sleep and this is due to stress and late nights from work which means I have to stay up later to complete any outstanding work that I have.
To combat the stress in my life I am going to try and take some more time to relax. I am constantly trying to please and see other people and so I am trying to go to uni, work out, see my family, my friends and my boyfriend. By trying to please everyone, I often run down myself and so I am going to try and take an hour a day to have a bath or a nap to recuperate myself.