Are you in UPHEAVAL? Take a test to see
upheaval ʌpˈhiːv(ə)l/ noun
1. a violent or sudden change or disruption to something.
"major upheavals in the financial markets"
Synonyms: disruption, upset, disturbance, trouble, turbulence; disorder,
disorganization, confusion, turmoil, pandemonium, bedlam, furore, uproar,
disarray, chaos, mayhem, cataclysm; revolution, violent change, sudden change
Are you in a stormy season of UPHEAVAL? Are you experiencing major disruption, disturbance, chaos, confusion, or turbulence in your life? Feel like you are crawling into a hole to wait out the storm? How do your really know whether you have a right to be stressed?
In the 70s, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe set out to explore the connection between stress and illness. They developed a scale to rank stressful life events and then compared the stress levels with the amount of times a person got sick. No big surprise that the higher the stress, the more likely a person was to experience illness.
Life Events are often TRANSITIONS that Cause Stress... What's striking about the stress scale is how each of these events describes a life transition. Some of the events are happy like getting a new job, pregnancy, and marriage reconciliation. Other events are difficult like death, divorce, or change in health. And yet other events that made the stress scale are just a routine part of life like Christmas or starting a new school year. There is virtually no way to escape stress OR transition.
Want to find out YOUR current stress Level? Take the 5-10 minute Holmes and Rahe test here.
Want to find out YOUR TEEN OR COLLEGE STUDENT'S current stress level? Take the 5-10 minute Holmes and Rahe test here.
If you find yourself scoring above a 150, chances are pretty good you are struggling with upheaval in several arenas of your life (i.e. vocation, body, social structure, relationships). To further understand what type of transitions you may be experiencing, read the post, "What Type of Transition are You in?
Obviously, this is a dated list of stressors... I wonder if the list was created today whether it might include things like struggling with a pornography addiction, presidential election year, or lose all your data on your computer. At any rate, if you don't see one of your stressful events listed, estimate the level of stress that has added to your life and add that on to your score.
For example, one of my dear friends, in the last two years has lost her daughter, father, brother, aunt, and both mother-in-law and father-in-law (that is over 350 points on the stress scale!). That doesn't include all the other life stressors: a child in puberty, launching another adult child, major role change in their organization, changing churches, and everyday life and activities. The Holmes and Rahe stress scale only goes up to 600; quite literally, she is off the charts in her stress level. If that's not the definition of upheaval - I don't know what is!
Why does it help to take a test to know whether your life transitions are stressing you out?
Because you may need to hear a few things...
You are not crazy! If you are struggling to keep it together, wondering where you went wrong... guess what? You are carrying a lot of stress. Give yourself some grace. In fact, give yourself the same grace you would give your friend if you saw his/her score on the stress test.
Upheaval stinks. There is so much woven into a season of upheaval that is difficult... grief, loss, change, death of dreams, disorientation, heaviness, self-doubt. It's overwhelming when all we see is the difficult parts of transition.
Upheaval can be beautiful invitation. On the other hand, we can learn to see the beauty of this chaotic time as well. In the fires of life, junk gets burned off that needed to go. Priorities can get realigned. Relationships can move towards health. (Or we can make choices for health even if others won't go with us!) Old patterns can be broken. Addiction can be healed. Our faith can grow in unexpected ways.
Hang in there!
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