The Definition of Stress

It is difficult to find agreement on what the definition of stress should be, because the much larger concept was so quickly reduced to a popular buzzword to describe feelings of tension and pressure.

In fact there is unlikely to be a definition of stress that everyone agrees on, for what is stressful for one person may be pleasurable or have little effect on others, and each of us individually reacts to stress in countless different ways.

It's is often easier to get a better idea of what stress is by looking at:
What is Stress and Why is it Dangerous
The Indicators and Symptoms of Stress
3 Keys to Free You From Stress Forever
The Brain/Body Chemistry of Stress
The Biggest Causes of Stress

Another dilemma in defining stress is that it is not even a term that scientists use because it is such a highly subjective phenomenon that it defies definition. After all, if you can't define it how can you possibly measure it?

The definition of stress is even more elusive because the founder of the term, Hans Selye M.D. agreed that it is a misnomer! With all the comparisons to other types of stress (as the word is used in industry and science), he later said he should have named the health concept "strain".

HANS SELYE -
THE FOUNDING FATHER OF THE CONCEPT OF "STRESS"

Today the word "stress" has become so ingrained that it is difficult to believe that the term originated only a few short decades ago by Hans Selye, the father of scientific foundation for mind-body medicine, who in the 1950's introduced it as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change".

At the time in medical history when it was believed that diseases were caused by that specific disease causing pathogen, for example, tuberculosis was caused by the tubercle bacillus, what Selye proposed was just the opposite -- many different stressful insults could cause the same disease.

Wikipedia offers Selye's definition of stress telling us Selye discovered and documented that stress differs from other physical responses in that stress is stressful whether one receives good or bad news, whether the impulse is positive or negative. He called negative stress "distress" and positive stress "eustress".

The system whereby the body copes with stress, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) system, was also first described by Selye. He also pointed to an "alarm state", a "resistance state", and an "exhaustion state", largely referring to glandular states. Later he developed the idea of two "reservoirs" of stress resistance, or alternatively stress energy.

HANS SELYE's BOOKS ON STRESS

Hans Selye's original ground breaking book in 1956, The Stress of Life, had over 1,000 pages and more than 5,000 references.

Today, hundreds of books cite Seyle's two currently in-print but edited-down books, "The Stress of Life" 2nd edition, and "Stress Without Distress".

And although stress research has marched rapidly on since Seyles death in 1982, history continues to confirm that this three time Nobel Prize nominee was way ahead of his time documenting the role of stress hormones on the immune, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, neurological systems and how the brain processes stress.

It is thanks to Selye's interest in educating both the lay public and health professionals and his commitment to education about stress management behaviors and life philosophies that we are able to free ourselves from the ravages of stress in our lives today.