Your Stress Response Isn’t Random — It’s Trainable.
Discover your DistressRx™ Type and learn how to regulate your stress before it becomes burnout.
Take the Quiz →
DistressRx™ — Find Your Stress Type
A personalized, science-based quiz for women in medicine who want to feel calm, strong, and in control again.
Your stress isn’t random. It’s patterned — and it’s trainable.
Discover your DistressRx™ Type — a 3-minute quiz designed by Dr. Ali Novitsky, MD, physician, obesity medicine specialist, and founder of The FIT Collective.
You’ve mastered your career. You care deeply.
And yet… stress still hijacks your body, your focus, your peace.
It’s not a mindset problem — it’s a nervous system language.
Take the DistressRx™ Quiz to identify your unique stress pattern and learn how to regulate at the root — before it spills into burnout, emotional eating, or exhaustion.
Take the Quiz →Safe, free, and takes less than 3 minutes.
Find Your DistressRX™ Type
Most of us can say “I’m stressed.” But can we describe *how* that stress feels, what triggers it, or how it shapes our behavior? DistressRX® gives you a common language for stress — bridging what you feel with how you communicate. When you understand your stress type, you can transform emotional chaos into clarity and connection.
The 6 Distress Types
Each of us has a dominant stress type — a pattern that surfaces under pressure. Some withdraw, others over-control, seek validation, or act impulsively. These aren’t flaws — they’re adaptive survival mechanisms that can be transformed through awareness and emotional regulation.
The Relationship Matrix
We don’t experience stress in isolation — we experience it in relationship. The DistressRX® Relationship Matrix reveals how different stress types interact, helping you turn conflict into communication and misunderstanding into empathy.
The 12 Stress Lenses
When we’re stressed, we see the world through distorted lenses — perfectionism, self-doubt, fear, or control. By understanding your unique lens, you gain insight into your reactions and clarity in how you connect.
Understanding your stress type is the first step to reclaiming calm, clarity, and connection.
✨ Take the DistressRX™ QuizBecause regulation is the root of everything.
When stress drives your decisions, your health goals, or your relationships — everything feels uphill.
DistressRx™ helps you catch your stress before it hijacks your energy, confidence, or clarity.
Three Key Benefits
- Understand Yourself: Spot the patterns behind overworking, people-pleasing, or overwhelm.
- Regulate at the Source: Learn why your body reacts the way it does — and how to shift it.
- Heal Through Strength: Discover how muscle, mindset, and metabolism intersect in your stress response.
Designed for women in medicine — because we’re wired to care and trained to push through.
DistressRx™ is for the high-performing woman in medicine who:
- Feels drained no matter how much she accomplishes.
- Struggles to “turn off” after work.
- Overthinks, over-gives, or over-controls under stress.
- Wants to feel focused, energized, and emotionally grounded again.
This isn’t therapy. It’s regulation science — designed for your brain, your hormones, and your lived experience as a physician.
Take the Quiz →
Each type has its own cozy page waiting for you after the quiz — complete with practical tools, body-based resets, and insights from Dr. Ali.
Find My Type →Your quiz results are just the beginning.
Once you know your type, you’ll receive:
- A personalized results email from Dr. Ali
- A dedicated webpage exploring your stress pattern across the 12 Transform™ Pillars
- Practical next steps to regulate stress before it leads to burnout
This isn’t about “fixing” yourself — it’s about training your nervous system the same way you train muscle: gradually, intelligently, compassionately.
Created by a physician, for women in medicine.
Dr. Ali Novitsky, MD, is a board-certified physician in Obesity Medicine, Pediatrics, and Neonatology.
As the founder of The FIT Collective® and creator of Transform™, she’s coached thousands of women in medicine to reclaim their health through evidence-based strength training, mindset regulation, and metabolic care.
“Regulated women heal themselves — and everyone they serve.”Find My Type →
Validation of the DistressRx™ Assessment Tool
Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Framework to Identify Distress Tolerance Subtypes Among Women Physicians
Authors
Ali Novitsky, MD — Triple Board-Certified Physician; Master Certified Coach; CEO, The FIT Collective®; Creator of the Transform® Model and DistressRx™ Assessment Tool
Brooke Buckley, MD — Dual Board-Certified Surgeon and Lifestyle Medicine Physician; Specialist in Trauma-Informed Leadership and Workforce Resilience
Mark Novitsky, MD — Dual Board-Certified Psychiatrist; Diplomate, American Board of Obesity Medicine; Expert in Emotional Regulation and Cognitive Behavioral Integration
Abstract
Background: Physicians experience persistent cognitive and emotional load, yet few instruments capture the nuanced ways they internalize and transform distress. The DistressRx™ Assessment was developed to address this gap by operationalizing six distinct distress-tolerance subtypes within the Transform® Model.
Methods: Item development drew on eight years of qualitative coaching data from women physicians, guided by established emotion-regulation and stress-coping models. The instrument was refined to 18 items representing six subtypes and tested with N=350 women physicians using EFA/CFA for validity.
Results: Analyses supported a coherent six-factor structure with excellent fit indices (CFI=1.00, RMSEA=0.004) and strong subscale reliabilities (α=.73–.86).
Conclusions: The DistressRx™ demonstrates exceptional factorial validity and reliability, offering a developmental lens to interpret distress as data for transformation.
Theoretical Framework
The DistressRx™ integrates three foundational theories — stress appraisal (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), emotion regulation (Gross, 1998), and distress tolerance (Simons & Gaher, 2005) — within a developmental coaching lens. Distress is treated as adaptive feedback, guiding awareness and evolution toward self-regulation and balance.
Subtypes Identified
- Isolation Distress: Emotional withdrawal as protection.
- Assertive Distress: Control or intensity as a guard against vulnerability.
- Validation Distress: Seeking reassurance to affirm worth.
- Control Distress: Overplanning to reduce uncertainty.
- Impulsivity Distress: Rapid action to avoid discomfort.
- Catastrophizing Distress: Anticipating worst outcomes to feel prepared.
Methods & Analysis
Sample: 350 women physicians from The FIT Collective® programs.
Design: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed a six-factor solution explaining 57% variance; subscale reliability α=.73–.86.
Results Summary
| Criterion | Benchmark | Result | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| KMO | .70+ | .75 | Acceptable |
| Bartlett’s Test | p < .001 | < .001 | Pass |
| Variance Explained | ≥ 55% | 57% | Strong |
| Subscale α | .65–.85 | .73–.86 | Excellent |
| CFA Fit (CFI/RMSEA) | ≥ .94 / ≤ .06 | 1.00 / .004 | Excellent |
Discussion
The DistressRx™ bridges clinical psychology and coaching science, reframing distress as adaptive intelligence. It integrates psychometric precision with practical tools for leadership, coaching, and clinical growth.
Implications for Practice
- Individual Insight: Increases self-awareness and emotional agility.
- Coaching Integration: Enables subtype-specific reflection and regulation strategies.
- Organizational Leadership: Informs culture-wide well-being initiatives through real emotional data.
- Clinical Use: Enhances therapeutic frameworks such as CBT and DBT with subtype precision.
Conclusion
The DistressRx™ Assessment provides an evidence-based, developmentally grounded framework to transform distress into insight. It validates that resilience is not the absence of stress — but the integration of it.
Proceed to the next page to explore each DistressRx™ Type and its transformation pathway.
Your body already knows how to calm. Let’s remind it.
You deserve to feel strong, steady, and clear — not just on paper, but in your body.
Take 3 minutes to discover your DistressRx™ type and start transforming stress at the source.
Confidential. Free. Designed for women physicians.