Stress is an emotion experience that has a bi-folded nature. This means that stress has both positive and negative features. While some amount of stress is absolutely necessary for our survival, the experience of stress beyond a threshold point may turn out to be exhaustive and sometimes life-threatening too.

Since understanding stress is a critical concept, there are virtually wide numbers of definition of stress documented in different psychology and medical journals. The definition of stress has thus different shades, different perspectives. With the help of this article, let us explore few of them. Here we go.

Stress as Separation Anxiety

When we search for the definition of stress, where stress is perceived as an outcome of separation anxiety, we can define it as an emotional response occurring as a result of early separation from mother. Stress as separation anxiety may lead to the development of depression and substance abuse in adult life.

Stress as Post Traumatic Reaction

The definition of stress occurring as a result of post traumatic reaction is explained as post traumatic stress disorder, which is characterized by an intense fear regarding personal safety without any specific cause, recurrent thoughts of traumatic events, nightmares and poor quality sleep, feeling of detachment, emotional numbness, etc.

We’ll continue with more definitions of stress in part 2…