The following test was developed by Psychologists Lyle H. Miller and Alma Dell Smith at Boston University Medical Center. Score each item from 1(almost always) to 5(never) according to how much of the time each statment applies to you.

1. I eat at least one hot, balanced meal a day.
2. I get seven to eight hours sleep at least four nights a week.
3. I give and receive affection regularly.
4. I have at least one relative within 50 miles on whom I can rely.
5. I exercise to the point of perspiration at least twice a week.
6. I smoke less than half a pack of cigarettes a day.
7. I take fewer than five alcoholic drinks a week.
8. I am the appropriate weight for my height.
9. I have an income adequate to meet my basic expenses.
10. I get strength from my religious beliefs.
11. I regularly attend a club or social activities.
12. I have a network of friends and acquaintanes.
13. I have one or more friends to confide in about personal matters.
14. I am in good health (including eyesight, hearing, and teeth).
15. I am able to speak openly bout my feelings when angry or worried.
16. I have regular conversations with the people I live with about domestic problems, e.g., chores, money, and daily living issues.
17. I do something for fun at leaast once a week.
18. I am able to organize my time effectively.
19. I drink fewer than three cups of coffee, tea, or cola drinks a day.
20. I take quiet time for myself during the day.

To get your score, add up the figures and subtract 20. Any number over 30 indicates a vulnerablility to stress. You are seriously vulnerable if your score is between 50 and 75, and extremely vulnerable if it is over 75.

Changes in your life, even good ones, produce stress. Add up your total scores from below and see if you are having too many or too severe changes in your lifestyle.

Reproduced with permission of: Thomas H. Holmes, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. University of Washington, Seattle.

• When you can't stand anymore stress, go to the coin laundry and throw in the towel.
• Play "Go Fish" with a three-year old. Win.
• Replace your "in-box" with garbage can.
• When stress takes its toll, ask for a receipt.
• Need to escape the grind? Have and out-of-body experience.
• Answer a highly technical question in your best Donald Duck voice.
• For comic relief from stress, laugh at inapproprite times.
• Avoid rush-hour stress. Drive slowly and honk and wave to pedestrians.
• Place a mark on your body to see where you have had it up to.
• For a quiet evening, play blank cassette tapes at full volume.
• Wrap yourself in bubble wrap.
• Gazing at water is soothing. Fill the sink and pull up a chair.
• Glue your old shoes to the ceiling.
• Pretend that you're someone else.
• Organize a hum-a-long, it's hard to feel stressed when you are humming.
• Shake hands enthusiastically with yourself.
• Urge those who are annoying you to go sit on a rutabaga.
• Too much to do? Complain loudly and incessantly. You'll get further behind, but you'll feel better.
• Write a memo congradulating yourself for being so wonderful.
• Take an eight-hour lunch break.
• Pretend that you're still in control.
• Fill your hot tub with chicken soup.
• Eat gelatin with chopsticks.
• Ring somebody's doorbell and run away.