Stress: Are you ready to remodel?
/Remodeling is among the most stressful choices we can make in life. Before beginning a remodeling project, I encourage my clients to do a stress self-evaluation known as the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory. This tool compiles the number of stressors in your current situation and calculates a score that quantifies your stress level.
Development
In 1967, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe examined the medical records of over 5,000 medical patients as a way to determine whether stressful events might cause illnesses. Patients were asked to tally a list of 43 life events based on a relative score. A positive correlation of 0.118 was found between their life events and their illnesses.
Their results were published as the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS),known more commonly as the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale. Subsequent validation has supported the links between stress and illness.
Supporting research
Rahe carried out a study in 1970 testing the validity of the stress scale as a predictor of illness.[3] The scale was given to 2,500 US sailors and they were asked to rate scores of 'life events' over the previous six months. Over the next six months, detailed records were kept of the sailors' health. There was a +0.118 correlation between stress scale scores and illness, which was sufficient to support the hypothesis of a link between life events and illness.[4]
In conjunction with the Cornell medical index assessing, the stress scale correlated with visits to medical dispensaries, and the H&R stress scale's scores also correlated independently with individuals dropping out of stressful underwater demolitions training due to medical problems. The scale was also assessed against different populations within the United States (with African, Mexican and White American groups). The scale was also tested cross-culturally, comparing Japanese and Malaysian groups with American populations.
Adults
The sum of the life change units of the applicable events in the past year of an individual's life gives a rough estimate of how stress affects health.
source: Wikipedia
Score of 300+: Do not attempt a remodeling project
Score of 150-299: Consider remodeling, if you have a good support system and a concrete plan.
Score <150: Let’s make it happen!
