First Choice Health Home : Employee Assistance Program : Screening Tools : Stress Awareness Tool

This online self-assessment tool does not diagnose or directly measure your level of stress. Based on your responses to the questions below, it indicates the extent to which you could be vulnerable to stress-related problems associated with a contemporary lifestyle.

Stress is a physical and psychological phenomenon. It can negatively influence your health, quality of life, and interactions with others (partners, family members, friends, co-workers, supervisor, etc.). Stress triggers an automatic “fight or flight” alarm in the human brain, which occurs in response to difficult or threatening situations. This “built in” response is intended to help people avoid or manage (real or imagined) situations or threats , whether the setting is at work, at home, in rest or at play.

Low to moderate levels of stress can be motivating and contribute to individual success and accomplishment. Distress is most frequently experienced when the demands, expectations, responsibilities and requirements on an individual are greater than his or her knowledge, experience, skills, coping abilities, or available resources. Chronic or acute distress is negative and can be overwhelming - leading to exhaustion, impaired work performance , mood changes, impaired sleep, injury, illness, mental health problems, and relationship difficulties.

DISCLAIMER: This awareness tool is intended to increase recognition of stress and the lifestyle factors that frequently contribute to stress. This awareness tool is not to be used to diagnose or measure stress. A thorough evaluation by your physician or other care provider is required to diagnose clinical anxiety or stress-related health problems.

INSTRUCTIONS: Read each sentence carefully and then select the response that best describes how you have felt over the past two months.