Stress! We all know what it is - the pressure of life and work, the strain of keeping ahead of the game, the emotional and physical effects of having too much to do with too little time to do it in, and, above all, the result of believing we have no control over what happens to us. But is there any way to predict how much stress we're under, and what effect it might have on us?Indeed there is! Many years ago, Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe at the University of Washington interviewed 5000 people in detail about their lives and then followed them through the next few years to see how their health changed. What they found has gone down in the history of stress research as a classic piece of work.It turned out that you can rate the chances of someone becoming ill in the next year on the basis of the events that happened to them up to twelve months ago. And the more stressful the event, the higher the chances of them becoming ill. Nothing has changed since Holmes and Rahe did their research: the things that made people stressed back in the 1960s still threaten our health. It's just that nowadays we face many more stressful things than people did in the 1960s.If you want to know if you're at risk of developing a stress-related illness in the year ahead, look at this list of events and see if any of them have happened to you in the past twelve months. Death of spouse; divorce; marital separation; jail term; death of close family member; personal injury or illness; marriage; fired at work; marital reconciliation; retirement; change in health of family member; pregnancy; sex difficulties; gain of new family member; business adjustment; change of financial state; death of close friend; change to different line of work; change in number of arguments with spouse; mortgage over £100,000; foreclosure of mortgage or loan; change in responsibilities at work; son or daughter leaving home; wife begins or stops work; begin or end university; change in living conditions; revision of personal habits; trouble with boss; change in work hours or conditions; change in residence; change in university/schools; change in recreation; change in church activities; change in social activities; mortgage or loan less than £100,000; change in sleeping habits; change in number of family get-togethers; change in eating habits; vacation; trouble with in-laws; outstanding personal achievement; minor violations of the law.
Broadly speaking, the lower down the list, the less stressful an item is. The higher up the list, the more stressful. Although of course this is in no way a complete list of stressful events, these are the most important ones - the ones most likely to make us ill.Holmes and Rahe gave points to each item on the list and then discovered that the total number of points a person scored was closely related to the chance of them becoming ill in the next twelve months. You can see the complete list of stressful events and how many points each is worth at the website listed in the resources box. You can also work out your chance of becoming ill through a stress related problem.What's the lesson here? We all have to live in a world where there are real challenges like the ones above. There's no escaping stress, and in fact some experts have said it's good for us - but only in moderation! It's when we can't control what happens to us that we develop stress-related problems.So, if you think you might be at risk of stress, the answer is to act now. Find something that acts as a counterpoint to your stress levels - relaxation, holistic therapy, a hobby, quality time with your loved ones. It might just be the difference between a serious illness and a happy, healthy life.

Rod Smith is a counselor and author of books on stress. Please visit http://www.reduce-my-stress.com/