The term stress can be traced back to at least 18th century England, where it was used to refer to tightness or pressure. It appeared in medical literature in 1947, when Hans Selye published his landmark book The Stress of Life. Since then, it has been used in a variety of different fields, including psychology, biology and medicine.
Stress is defined as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. The stress response is an adaptive, physiological reaction to a perceived threat.
The concept of stress has undergone several changes since its introduction into the scientific lexicon. Selye originally defined stress as the “non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it.” Later on, he refined this definition to mean “the non-specific responses of the body and its parts to any demand made upon them.”
Selye also identified two categories of stress: eustress (good) and distress (bad). He believed that eustress could improve your health while distress would harm it.
Stress can be either positive or negative. Positive stress is sometimes called eustress and it occurs when we have to meet a challenge that stimulates us to develop new skills. Negative stress is sometimes called distress and occurs when we are overwhelmed by demands on our time or resources that leave us exhausted and unable to cope with further demands placed on us (e.g., having too much work to do at work).
