Free stress quiz · For adults · PSS-10
Free adult stress quiz.
Ten questions, about three minutes. This is the Perceived Stress Scale, the most widely used measure of how stressed people actually feel. It will not diagnose anything, but it can show you, honestly, how heavy the past month has been.
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About this screener
Stress is about how manageable life feels.
The Perceived Stress Scale does not count your stressors. Instead it asks how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded your life has felt over the past month: how often things piled up, how often you felt on top of them, how often you could handle what came at you.
Answer for the last month, as honestly as you can. When you finish, you will see your score, what it suggests in plain language, and a next step if you want one.
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was developed by Sheldon Cohen and colleagues (1983) and is freely available for nonprofit and educational use. It is reproduced here for educational screening use.
High-functioning does not mean fine
Therapy for stress and burnout in North County.
Plenty of capable, successful people are quietly running on empty. Our doctoral-level psychologists help you understand what is driving the overload and build a steadier way of carrying it, especially if you are used to being the one who holds everything together. In Carlsbad, Encinitas, Vista, or online across California. It starts with a free 15-minute consultation.
Further reading
More from the Undercurrent.
Questions
About the stress quiz.
01 Is this a diagnosis of a stress disorder?
No. Stress itself is not a diagnosis, and this is not a diagnostic tool. The Perceived Stress Scale measures how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded your life has felt over the past month. It is a helpful mirror, not a verdict.
02 How accurate is the Perceived Stress Scale?
The PSS is the most widely used psychological measure of perceived stress and has been validated across decades of research. Its own authors note it is not diagnostic and has no official cutoffs, so the ranges below are a common way to read your score, not a clinical line.
03 What do the score ranges mean?
Scores are commonly read as 0 to 13 low stress, 14 to 26 moderate stress, and 27 to 40 high stress. Higher means stress has felt more constant and less manageable lately. Treat it as a snapshot of a hard stretch, not a fixed trait.
04 When should I get help for stress?
If stress is affecting your sleep, your relationships, your work, or your body, or if it just will not let up, that is reason enough to talk to someone. You do not need to be in crisis, and you do not need a diagnosis, to benefit from support.
Ready when you are
You can set some of it down.
Starting is a small step: a short, no-pressure conversation to see if we are a good fit. We would be glad to hear from you.