The common element in all stress, positive and negative, is change. And there's much evidence to show that the more and greater chances people have to adapt to in a given period of time, the greater the danger of overwhelming the body's coping mechanisms.

Several years ago, massive studies were conducted, involving thousands of people, to correlate changes in life with later illness. Psychiatrists Thomas H. Holmes and Richard Rahe developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, ranking life change events according to the relative effort it takes people to adjust to them. (The rank order proved to be highly consistent, even among people of different countries.) For example, the death of a spouse is almost universally regarded as the most difficult stressful event in an adult's life.

Bear two things in mind, though. This is only a general indication based on other people's experiences. And other factors besides change have a great deal to do with whether illness actually occurs.

Read each of the events listed below, and check the box next to any event which has occurred in your life in the last two years. There are no right or wrong answers. The aim is just to identify which of these events you have experienced lately.