CCSU Counseling and Wellness Center
                               205 Marcus White Hall
 

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                  Wellness Appraisal      

1.  On average, how many days per week do you exercise for at least 20 minutes?
 

None. I do not exercise	5 - 6 days
1 - 2 days	daily
3 - 4 days

2.  How may times in the past 12 months have you dieted to lose weight?
 

None	5 - 6 times
1 - 2 times	7 or more times
3 - 4 times

3.  On a typical day, how many cigarettes do you smoke?
 

None. I do not smoke	16 - 20
1 - 5	21 - 30
6 - 10	Over 30
11 - 15

4.  If you don't smoke now but used to, how long has it been since you quit

Not applicable	7 - 11 months
3 months or less	1 - 4 years
4 - 6 months	5 or more years

5.  How often do you drink anything containing alcohol? (If you do not drink, check "Never" and omit the next two questions.)
 

0 ___  Never	4 ___  2 - 3 times a week
1 ___  Less than monthly	5 ___  4 - 6 times a week
2 ___  Monthly	6 ___  Daily
3 ___  Weekly

In the following questions, a drink means one beer, one glass of wine, one half of a wine cooler, or a mixed drink containing hard liquor. Each counts as one drink; a mixed drink with double shots counts as two drinks.

6.  How many drinks do you have on a typical day when you are drinking?
 

0 ___  1 drink	4 ___  5 - 6 drinks
1 ___  1 - 2 drinks	5 ___  7 - 9 drinks
2 ___  3 drinks	6 ___  10 or more
3 ___  4 drinks

7.  How often do you have four or more drinks on one occasion?

0 ___  Never	4 ___  2 - 3 times a week
1 ___  Less than monthly	5 ___  4 - 6  times a week
2 ___  Monthly	6__   Daily
3 ___  Weekly

8.   Have you ever used any of the following substances?

9.   Have you gambled in the past 12 months?  If so, what form(s) do you typically
      use?

Questions 1 and 2 deal with eating and exercise.  There is no "correct" number of how many times one should exercise or diet. To interpret your responses,  look for extremes.  If you exercise more than 3 - 4 days/week, and it is not required for a sport, are you over exercising?  If your exercise gets in the way of your daily studies and your social life, then you probably are exercising too much.  If you are dieting to lose weight, especially if you are "always" on a diet, please take a look at the web page on eating disorders.  Dieting certainly does not mean you have an eating disorder, but you may have symptoms you haven't considered before.

Questions 3 and 4 apply to smoking.  It is no surprise that cigarette smoking can affect the quality of your life both in the short and long term.  Shortness of breath, bronchitis, chronic cough, asthma, agitation, difficulty sleeping and other symptoms may be related to your smoking.  Please take a look at the web page on smoking.

Questions 5, 6 and 7 are more exact in their interpretation.  If, in adding  the numbers of your responses for those three questions, the total for a woman is less than 7 and less than 8 for a man, that score indicates low risk drinking.  We don't call it safe drinking, because there really is no category of safe when it comes to drinking.  But you can lower your risk for health problems and safety problems when you stay within the low risk category.  If you score higher than 7 or 8 you are drinking at a high risk level and should consider speaking to someone such as your doctor or a counselor who is knowledgeable about alcohol abuse.  A score of 16 or above indicates serious problems with alcohol; anyone scoring at that level is at high risk for health and safety problems that often lead to disease and a shorter life span. For more information please take a look at the web page on  alcohol information.
Additionally, drinking, even at low risk levels, can be  linked to depression, anxiety disorders and eating disorders.  It is a complex relationship, but if you are drinking to mask other symptoms - such as depression- then you are facing additional problems.  Please look at the web pages on depression and anxiety.

Of all the substances listed in question 8, only three, Ritalin, steroids and pain killers are legal drugs.  What this question is really asking is have you used any of these three illicitly.   A “yes” response to any substance in question 8 indicates that you have/are used an illegal drug.  Clearly, any use of an illicit drug is high-risk for health and safety problems both immediately and in the future. For more information please look at the web pages drug and alcohol information and other drugs. 

Finally, question 9, gambling is not necessarily a high-risk behavior, but it can become a problem when it begins to interfere with your relationships, your finances, your academic life, and/or presents legal problems.  For more information please look at the web pages on gambling.

Wellness is a term used to cover a lot of territory.  The appraisal above is just one quick method to take a look at your lifestyle.  If you have any questions, or would like to make an appointment with a counselor, please stop by 205 Marcus White or call 832-1945 for an appointment.

For another self-test, go to:

The College Readjustment Rating Scale: Stress and your Health

1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT 06050  860.832.CCSU or toll free instate 1-888-733-2278

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