ABSTRACT
Most people, who come to their GP with stress, or anxiety and/or depression, are suffering from a combination of stressful life events. This has happened, then that happened, then the other. An accumulation of very stressful life events in a relatively short period can really increase one's vulnerability to anxiety or depression, or can even bring it on, essentially due to an emotional "overload". This chapter suggests several life events and provides some sample scores. If people score a total of 250-300 points for stressful events over the eighteen months they are considering, their symptoms are probably resulting from an accumulation of such stressful life events. If they are suffering from depression, this form is sometimes called a "reactive depression" or "exogenous depression". This means that there is probably not anything wrong with them, but there was something very wrong with what had happened to them.
