From the Vault:
Score yourself on life's traumatic events

From the March-April 1979 Transporter. This has very little to do with transportation, but it's quite interesting. Notice, for instance, #3 and #9. Evidently, separation and reconciliation both take years off your life.

One of the most widely used "stress tests" is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale devised by Drs. Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe at the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle.

Forty-two common life changes are listed in the order in which the doctors found them to be important precursors of illness. A total score predicts your chances of suffering serious illness within the next two years.

If you score less than 150 within a year, you have only a 37% chance of getting sick within the next two years. But up your score to 150-300 and your chances increase to 51%. Hit 300 and you are, according to the doctors, in serious danger.

Says Holmes, "If you have more than 300 lifechange units and get sick, the probability is you will have cancer, a heart attack or manic-depressive psychosis rather than warts and menstrual irregularities."

On the other hand, he adds, "There are worse things in this life than illness. It is worse to go on in an intolerable, dull, or demeaning situation."

 

 

 

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Published 01-25-19