As many as two-thirds of office visits to family physicians are due to stress-related health problems. Such health problems cost American businesses between $50 and $75 billion each year. Stress is a major contributor, directly or indirectly, to six of the leading causes of death in the U.S.:

1. coronary heart disease;

2. cancer;

3. lung disease;

4. cirrhosis of the liver;

5. accidental injury and

6. suicide.

There is a growing awareness among "healthcaring" professionals of a subtle but powerful association between stress, health and maintaining physical well-being (Wellness). Chronically high stress contributes to problems such as headaches, back pain, stomach problems and obesity. Frequent stress, with anger, fosters high blood pressure and stroke. Stress associated with depression encourages physical fatigue and lowers our resistance to illness. Tobacco use can easily represent a failed attempt to deal with hidden or obvious stress.

The WIN Stress and Smoking Quiz offers these important benefits:

• It examines what you need to know: Probable blocks to your dealing with smoking's considerable health risk and how close you are to overcoming (with superior information) what gets in your way.
• The WIN Stress and Smoking Quiz is brief and clear with only 10, highly-refined statements.
• The WIN Stress and Smoking Quiz is time-tested. It was developed over the past 14-plus years and used with hundreds of adults around the world.
• Because you score it yourself, this targeted health risk assessment (WIN Stress and Smoking Quiz) is entirely confidential and private. Unless you tell, no one but you will know what you learn.
• You don't need a manual to complete or score the WIN Stress and Smoking Quiz. It is straight-forward enough that you can take it in a few minutes and score it in even less time.
• It is FREE. (For your personal use only, unless given written permission to use it on a limited basis.)

Here's how to take this quiz:

• Read each of the 10 statements below.
• As you go, gauge how true each is of you, in recent times.

• Respond to each statement with a number from one to seven. The more you believe the statement describes you, the higher the number (one to seven) you give.

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  Not at all like me..........Moderately like me.............Just like me.

  1..........2..........3..........4..........5..........6...........7

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  • Write your numbers as you go and avoid skipping statements.

  Please, for adults only. We created, used and refined this quiz with hundreds of adults. So it does not apply to teens or children.

   

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  Wellness International Network's

   

  Smoking and Stress Quiz*

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  1. I have too much stress. (Remember the more a statement is true of you in recent times, the larger the number--one to seven--you write down.)
  2. I worry about people or things.
  3. I have a fear that interferes with or holds me back in my life. (The fear might be related to activities such as speaking up for or asserting yourself, driving or maybe flying.)
  4. I believe that one or more of my relationships at work or elsewhere suffer because of my fear, irritability or sadness.
  5. I don't believe I'm as successful in my work or at home as I can or should be.
  6. The way I eat and drink is nutritionally poor. Or I eat too much fattening food too often.
  7. I have a physical problem I suspect, or someone tells me, comes from pressures at work or elsewhere. (The physical problem might be a condition such as headaches, stomach trouble, difficulty sleeping, teeth grinding, bitten finger nails, excessive sweating, too much body fat, decreased sexual interest or pleasure, skin problems or cold hands. Please note that some of these can be caused by factors other than stress. If you haven't already, check with your physician if you have one or more of the preceding.)
  8. Most days, there are too many things I believe I should do.
  9. I use something to calm or relax me. Or I use something to pep me up or to give me energy. (You might, for example, use nicotine, caffeine, a medicine, a dietary supplement, alcohol, a forbidden drug, sex, exercise, gambling or maybe watching television.)
  10. I exercise (not activity done at work, yardwork or housework) too little, or the exercise I do doesn't help that much.

   

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  * Copyright © 1997-99, Wellness International Network, Inc. All rights reserved.

   

   

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  Add your numbers and write down that initial stress score.

  Initial score: ___________

   

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  Overstating Stress.

  If your "initial stress score" was 59 or higher, check to see how often you gave a response of seven. (The total presence of something so infrequently happens, that it's reasonable to consider such a response to be a subconscious attempt to overstate it.) Deduct two points from your "initial stress score" for each response of seven. If, for example, your "initial stress score" was 61, and you gave seven responses of seven, then subtract 14 points from your "initial stress score" for an "adjusted stress score" of 47.

  Put your adjusted stress score here: _______

  Note: Skip "Identifying Hidden Stress" below if you scored 40 or higher. Please go directly to "What your number suggests."

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  Identifying Hidden Stress.

  If you got an "initial stress score" of 39 or less, you still might have some "hidden stress." Three key items can tell you if you have this concealed, and particularly menacing, stress.

  1. Worry (inventory item # two)
  2. hurtful eating (# six) and
  3. using "home remedy" or prescribed "painkillers" (# nine) are common ways to unwittingly avoid an awareness of stress.

  If you scored 39 or less and still rated yourself with a five or more on statement two, six or nine, then add seven points to your initial score for each statement (2, 6 or 9) you responded to with a five or more. That means, for example, if your score totaled 37 and you rated yourself as five on statement number two and statement nine then add 14 (two statements time seven) to your 37 for a new total of 51.

  Did you respond to any of the 10 items by rating yourself with a number one? If so, add three points to your score for each. (It infrequently happens that there is a total absence of something. So it's appropriate to consider such a response to be a subconscious attempt to ignore stress.) For instance, if you answered two of the statements with a number one, you would add another six points to the 51 for a final adjusted total of 57. The difference between the 37 you started with and 57 represents Hidden Stress.

  Write your adjusted stress score here: _________

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  If you smoke cigarettes, what your number (initial or adjusted) suggests (scoring):

  • If you scored 33 or less, that suggests that you are using subconscious denial of how much stress you have. Don't take this as criticism. Instead, see it as a possibility you need to consider. Also with a stress score that low (33 or less), you may have misunderstood how to respond to this inventory. (The more you believe a statement describes you, the higher the number you give.)
  • If you scored 34 to 39, that implies that you have a low level of stress. It's unlikely that your smoking is related to how much stress you have.
  • If you scored 40 to 45, chances are you have a moderate level of stress that contibutes to your smoking. Your score clearly points to a need to reduce your stress.
  • Scores or 46 and higher suggest a high level of stress. Doing something soon that works to significantly lower your stress to stop smoking is, the author believes, clearly justified.

  Please note: The author offer this inventory for educational purposes. No lifestyle, health risk appraisal tells absolute facts. Such assessments suggest possibilities to consider. When the results make sense and are helpful, then use them to your benefit. But don't make significant changes in your work or relationships based on the results. Instead, use what you learn combined with appropriate professional support.

  Book reference: New Stress, Mood & Relationship Relief. The first nonsense-free, fully illustrated, plain-English program you use to identify and deal with what you know and don't know about that threatens you, your family and career. Lovelace, R. T., Health & Happiness Press. Winston-Salem. 1998.

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