Last week I took a test which uses the Holmes-Rahe Scale to measure how stressful a person’s life has been during the preceding 12 months. If your score exceeds 300 points, a little window helpfully pops up to inform you:
OVER 300: a score of over 300 points indicates a major life crisis and is highly predictive (80%) of serious physical illness in the next two years.
My score was 742.
It would have been even higher if I’d checked “death of close family member” but as it turned out, my FIL didn’t actually die last summer when he(and his wife and his daughter) moved in with us. Everybody told us he was going to die at any moment, but he didn’t and eventually more than two months went by with us in imminent death mode, until finally the doctors and hospice people agreed that he wasn’t going to die anytime soon and maybe we should find a nursing home for him. All of that was quite a bit of fun, yet it was only one stressful event in a year chock full of them. I hit something in practically every category on the Holmes-Rahe scale except giving birth, retiring, and doing jail time.
I wouldn’t have survived without help from family and friends old and new. In fact, in the past year it was some newish friends who made all the difference between shaky sanity and a rubber room for me. …You know who you are.
One way I can tell that stress levels are on the downswing is because my weight is, too. Over the last 4 months I’ve lost more than 25 pounds with hardly any conscious effort.
Now, 25 pounds is a sizable drop for some, but for me it’s barely a drop in the bucket when considering the total poundage I’ve packed on in the past 5 years. Still, 25 lbs. is 25 lbs.. Any downward move on the scale is good for me, and confirms that I feel happier and stronger now than I did 6 months ago.
So here we are in a new year and my life has settled down considerably, altho I do have a tough schedule ahead, and I expect that my stress-o-meter will continue to ding non-stop for months to come. Let’s see. I’ve got:
my oldest graduating from high school this spring and heading off to college this fall…
my youngest getting his drivers license any day now…
my dog the 13 year old, osteoarthritic Venerable Pup (border collie/Bernese mtn dog mix), needing meds that cost more than the GNP of Latvia…
my house, which is 26 years old and due for major renovations from attic to basement…
my novel which has gone unfinished for 8 years now…
and of course, first and foremost: completion of the separation and divorce process the hub and I have long been striving and yearning for. Yes, you read that right.
So you don’t think there can be such a thing as a happy divorce? Let me know and I’ll see to it you’re present on the day my divorce becomes final. I’ll make a believer out of you.
“But Tild†I hear you saying. “What does any of this mean in relation to your fabulous, eponymous, two year old blog?â€
Well, what it means, my droogies, is that for the foreseeable future I’m putting the blog on hiatus while I do other stuff.
Edited 01/30/2006: It’s not that I think I’m in danger (anymore) of keeling over from some stress-related malady. I’ve simply noticed that my heart’s not in the blogging at the moment. I want to concentrate instead on getting a bunch of other stuff done and other situations under control before I come back to the blog.
No, I’m not retiring. This is more like a pause for retooling. Lately I’ve also been thinking about moving this show off of blogspot and into my own domain, complete with new blogging software and better image hosting and yadda yadda. I haven’t made any decisions yet about where I’ll relocate, but when those decisions are made you’ll be the first to know. …Uhh, besides me that is.
In the immortal digitally enhanced words of the Lonesome Beet:
Future can’t wait — No place to hide!
Maybe we’ll run into each other on the Funway.
Mwah,
Tild
Posted: January 24th, 2006 under General.
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