An alphabetical collection of specialist terms and their meanings

ADAPTATION: The tendency of the body to fight to restore homeostasis ( the state of the body in which there exists a stable equilibrium) in the face of forces which upset the natural body balance.

ADRENALINE: An excitatory chemical produced by the adrenal glands, which plays a major role in the arousal of the human system.

BURNOUT: A state of mental and/or physical exhaustion caused by excessive stress.

DEPRIVATIONAL STRESS: The psychophysiological stress response caused by states of boredom and/or loneliness.

DISTRESS: "bad stress" which taxes us beyond our coping limits and can contribute to ill health.

EUSTRESS: "Good stress" resulting from any change in the environment that causes us to adapt; it makes us forge ahead against obstacles.

FEEDBACK: The return of some of the output of a system as input.

FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT REACTION: Also known as the emergency response or alarm reaction, this primitive bodily response provides the system with the extra energy and preparedness necessary to fight a situation or to flee from it. Some of the characteristics of the fight-or-flight reaction include muscular tension, increased blood pressure and heart rate, a sharpening of the senses, and the production of extra adrenaline.

FRUSTRATION: The thwarting or inhibiting of natural or desired behaviors and goals.

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME: A generalized arousal effect on the body produced by hormones. It is intended to stimulate bodily defense mechanisms against disease and thereby to increase the chances for survival through appropriate adaptation. It is characterized by an initial alarm reaction (the fight-or-flight reaction), a stage of resistance to disease, and, if unrelieved, a stage of exhaustion.

GENES: Minute intracellular particles which act as code letters of a chemical alphabet. Through them, hereditary information can be transmitted to successive generations.

NONSPECIFIC CHANGE: is one which affects all or most parts of a system without selectivity. It is the opposite of a specifically formed change, which affects one or, at most, a few units within a system. A nonspecifically caused change is one which can be produced by many or all agents.

OVERLOAD: A level of stimulation or demand that exceeds the capacity to process or comply with those demands; over-stimulation.

PERSONALITY: may be thought of as the summation of the characteristics, attitudes, values, and behavioral patterns that individuals manifest in interacting with their environment.

STRESS: The nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it, i.e., the generalized arousal of the psychological and physical systems aimed at adapting to or coping with internal and external change. Hans Selye, simply defined it as "the rate of wear and tear in the body." For general orientation, when you talk to a physician, he means the common results of exposure to any stimulus. For example, the bodily changes produced when a person is exposed to nervous tension, physical injury, infection, cold, heat, X-ray, or anything else are what we call stress. 

STRESSOR: The triggering event that makes demands upon the human system for psychological and physical adaptation.

STRESS-RELATED DISORDERS: Also known as the "diseases of adaptation or of "coping" these are the functional disorders that result directly or indirectly from the chronic excitation of the stress response
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SYNDROME: A group of symptoms and signs which appear together.

ULCER: Inflammation and erosion on a surface.