Take this at your own pace.
Use the timeframe described on this page and choose the answer that feels closest. You can stop whenever you want.
Your answers are ready to reflect on.
This is a record of what you selected, not a score or clinical interpretation.
You selected an answer other than “Never” for thoughts of death or self-harm. Please tell someone you trust and contact a verified crisis service now. If you may act soon, call local emergency services or go to the nearest emergency department. Find crisis support.
If any answer involves immediate danger, abuse, or an inability to stay safe, use urgent local support now.
Find the pressure point—not a character flaw.
Stress is shaped by demands, resources, predictability, recovery, and control. This reflection helps separate a demanding period from a pattern in which pressure is repeatedly exceeding what your current system can absorb.
Four parts of the stress load
The prompts are an observation aid. They cannot establish a diagnosis, severity category, cause, or treatment recommendation.
For stress tied to a major transition, the coping-with-change guide shows how to shorten the planning horizon and protect daily anchors.
| Area | What to notice | Useful detail to record |
|---|---|---|
| Demands | Workload, caregiving, conflict, uncertainty, or change | Which demands are fixed and which may be negotiable |
| Control | Choice over timing, methods, boundaries, and priorities | Where a decision or clarification is missing |
| Recovery | Sleep, breaks, movement, nourishment, and quiet | Whether recovery restores you between demands |
| Spillover | Irritability, concentration, health, and relationships | Where stress shows up outside the original problem |
Identify what the system is asking of you
The same answer can mean different things depending on timing, health, safety, environment, and what is typical for you.
When demands are primarily occupational, use the workplace-stress guide to document workload, control, support, and recovery.
- Which demand has increased most recently?
- What support, time, money, or authority is missing?
- What happens when you try to pause or set a limit?
Turn overload into a specific request
A clinician or support person can respond more clearly when you bring specific examples instead of trying to summarize your entire life.
If self-management is not enough, compare professional and community support pathways rather than treating coping as a solo responsibility.
- Which responsibilities are competing with each other?
- What would need to change—not just be endured?
- Which symptoms might also need a medical or mental-health assessment?
Make a stress-and-capacity map
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When coping is not the only answer
Seek support when stress remains high despite recovery attempts, affects physical or mental health, or is connected to unsafe work, abuse, discrimination, or an impossible caregiving load.
If there is immediate danger, abuse, severe physical symptoms, or an inability to stay safe, use urgent local help now rather than waiting to complete this page.
Sources and scope
This educational material uses the institutional overviews below as starting points. Those sources do not validate this original check-in, and the check-in does not reproduce or score a clinical instrument.