How Well Do You Cope with Stress?

Our bodies are equipped with an elaborate early warning system designed to detect and avert danger before it has actually caught up with us. This system has as its front rank the five senses -- vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell -- and behind this is a complex computer which samples and integrates information gathered by nerve receptors. Behind this again is another command and control device (the main part of the brain) which directs the body's neural and muscular responses after making the decision to stand and fight or turn and flee, depending upon the nature of the threatening situation. The various changes that take place in the nervous system as the result of the body's response to danger --- or to any arising situation -- bring in their wake distinct psychological changes.

  These we call our emotions -- the "feelings" we have which tell us which state of arousal our nervous system has switched into. In fact all animals including humans live in a dangerous, threatening or challenging environment, and therefore whether in love or hate, elation or depression, our nervous systems are for a large part of our lives in a high state of tune. In the days when the average life expectancy was a mere thirty years (or forty if you were lucky), this didn't matter too much, but today many people (particularly as middle age approaches) begin to feel their emotional defenses sagging somewhat as the pressures of the world around them pound on. But while everyone responds to threat and danger by 

exhibiting some degree of emotional response the variability in the degree of stress engendered by a particular situation is considerable. Not everyone is able to adjust satisfactorily and this failure to adjust often manifests itself in bodily symptoms or unusual attitudes of mind.

Broadly speaking these are the patterns of behavior which are loosely called "neurotic." The word unfortunately has acquired unsatisfactory overtones and in many people's eyes neuroticism and insanity are equated. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Some degree of neuroticism is present in everybody -- or at least everybody who leads an active physical or intellectual life and faces up to the fact that at no time is the world perfect or free from problems.

This Personal Analysis, which has been specially developed for Understanding Yourself by a consultant psychologist, allows you to undertake a frank assessment of the way in which you are responding to the complicated psychological, sociological and physiological stresses of modern living. The Analysis is based on a careful assessment of current clinical psychology. Nevertheless, it is intended as a guide only and not as a precise or comprehensive statement about your personality.

 

To achieve the most satisfactory result from this assessment, you should obey the following simple rules:

1. Answer each question as honestly as you possible can. If you do not you will end up with a distorted and misleading picture of yourself.

2. In many of the questions you will be asked to make a choice between a number of different views and attitudes. You may not find a perfect match on all occasions, but you must therefore pick the one that is closest to the way you feel on the subject.

3. When you are finished answering all the questions please press the Submit button at the bottom of the screen.

1. Try to imagine that you overhear two people whom you know very well talking about someone. After a while they say something which makes you realize that they are talking about you as what they say fits pretty closely with how you think other people see you. Which of the following statements is closest to the one that you "overheard"?
2. Here's a question about your relationships with the opposite sex. Which of the following most commonly corresponds to your own case?
3. Here are six statements. Show whether you strongly disagree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with each.

a. Politicians tend to be concerned with advancing themselves rather than helping ordinary people.

b. Spare the rod and spoil he child may be an old-fashioned saying but there is certainly a good deal of truth in it.

c. Most people who suffer from neuroses could benefit from more firmness and less sympathy.

d. Homosexuality is basically wrong and is a matter for punishment rather than treatment.

e. People who become alcoholics have only themselves to blame.

f. An untidy house denotes an untidy mind.

 
4. Please answer yes or no to each question below:

a. I feel full of confidence about the future for most of the time.

b. I'm pretty optimistic about things on the whole.

c. Sometimes I feel optimistic, sometimes pessimistic about the way things are going to turn out.

d. Occasionally I feel optimistic, but mostly I'm not too hopeful or happy about my future.

e. The future looks pretty black to me most of the time.
5. Please answer yes or no to each question below:

a. Are you having difficulty getting off to sleep at the moment?

b. Do you tend to be troubled by "dizzy spells" or "shortness of breath"?

c. Do you dislike the idea of foreign travel?

d. Do you have what you feel to be an unreasonable fear of high places or open spaces?

e. Do you often find yourself needing to cry?

f. Do you dislike shyness in others?

g. Do you have to check things that you do over and over again?

h. Have you ever had the feeling that you are just about to "go to pieces" in  your mind?

i. Does the thought of being in a closed space like an elevator or a tunnel upset you?

j. Do you tend to wake up unusually early in the mornings?

k. Do you suffer from indigestion and upset stomach rather a lot?

l. Do crowds of people make you feel a bit panicky?

m. Are you interested in current affairs and politics?

n. Does life seem to you to be "too much effort"?

o. Do you often worry about mistakes you have made in the past?

p. Are you at your happiest when you are being kept really busy?

q. Have you been suffering from poor appetite recently?

r. Do you enjoy watching thrillers on TV?

s. Do you find it difficult to look at pictures of any creepy-crawly animal, spider or worm?

t. Do you get strange tingling or burning sensations in different parts of your body?

u. Does it worry you quite a lot if you see an untidy room or house?

v. Do you often have the feeling that you are going to faint?

w. Are you interested in crossword puzzles?

x. Are you really scared of heights?

y. Do you get unusually tired rather easily.

z. Do you suffer from palpitations or strong flutterings of the heart?

aa. Does the prospect of a journey or voyage of any kind unsettle you?

bb. Would you describe yourself as a person who worries alot?

cc. Do you find that you get unusually annoyed if someone prevents you from doing something that you want to do?

dd. Are you interested in athletics?
6. Here are some drugs that people take to help them when under stress of one kind or another. Say honestly whether you use them never, occasionally or regularly:

a. Aspirin or tranquilizers

b. Sleeping pills of any kind

c. Herbal tonics or medicine

d. Alcohol