QUIZ: How Stressed Are You?
Are you a heart attack on legs or are you cool as a cucumber?
By Julia Scirrotto
Photo Credit: Suprijono Suharjoto/iStock
Special Offer
1. I feel like a grade-A multitasker when:
a. I read the paper with my GoLean Crunch.
b. I field client phone calls while ordering my best friend's birthday present on bluefly.com while eating my seaweed-salad lunch.
c. I BlackBerry during sex.
2. If I were to file a complaint with OSHA, I would cite the following work-related ailments:
a. That nasty manila-folder paper cut.
b. Do reading glasses count?
c. IBS, sleeplessness, hair loss, lockjaw, forehead wrinkling requiring Botox, carpal tunnel . . .
3. I go into panic mode when:
a. My cable's out.
b. I'm late to a gyno appointment because of gridlock, or when my anniversary falls during a major work deadline.
c. I wake up.
4. If you hooked me up to a heart monitor and showed me copies of my credit report, you'd observe:
a. My resting heart rate.
b. A noticeable spike followed by quick stabilization. The numbers could be better, but I've got a two-year plan in place to be debt-free.
c. Ready the defibrillator!
5. When I'm feeling stressed, I:
a. Self-medicate with a couple of bong hits and a bottle of white zin.
b. Methodically cross the next three items off my to-do list before going for a jog in the park with my golden retriever and making dinner with my significant other. (I'm an equal-opportunist.)
c. Beeline for Starbucks and order up a "Black Eye": a drip coffee plus two shots of espresso. (Gotta grease the productivity machine.)
6. The Grey's Anatomy character whose stress-management style I relate to most is:
a. Meredith Grey . . . I'm unflappable--some days thanks to heavy meds; others, tequila.
b. Cristina Yang . . . I'm excitable, but always in control.
c. Izzie Stevens . . . One more spaz-out and I'm permanently demoted to desk duty.
7. What I love most about caffeine is:
a. How it gets me through a hungover Sunday morning.
b. Its presence in my cellulite cream. (I apply it daily.)
c. In beverage form or Excedrin, it erases my damn stress headaches.
HOW STRESSED ARE YOU?
Mostly A's: Cool as a Corpse
Your blood pressure's so low, smoking and a high-sodium diet are doc's orders.
Mostly B's: Stress Is Your BFF
Driven yet balanced, you let stress motivate but not dominate.
Mostly C's: Heart Attack on Legs
You live with chest pains the way most of us live with split ends.
