terms
Physiological or psychological tension that threatens homeostasis or a person's psychological equilibrium.
When the body attempts to return to a state of balance.
Allostasis
The phase that occurs when the body can no longer resist the stress (i.e., when the energy necessary to remain adaptation is depleted)
Exhaustion Stage
Occurs when a person experiences or witnesses a traumatic event and responds with intense fear or helplessness.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Disasters
Adventitious Crises
Making up for a deficiency in one aspect of self-image by strongly emphasizing a feature considered an asset.
Compensation
Any event, situation, or other stimulus encountered in a person's external or internal environment that necessitates change or adaptation by the person.
Stressor
When the CNS is aroused and body defenses are mobilized.
Alarm Stage
Evaluating an event for its personal meaning related to stress.
Primary appraisal
A recollection so strong that the individual thinks that he or she is actually experiencing the trauma again or seeing it unfold before his or her eyes.
Flashbacks
A term used to describe a state of burnout and secondary traumatic stress.
Compassion fatigue
Unconsciously repressing an anxiety-producing emotional conflict and transforming it into nonorganic symptoms.
Conversion
How a person interprets the impact of the stressor.
Appraisal
The chronic arousal with the presence of powerful hormones that cause excessive wear and tear on bodily organs.
Allostatic load
Evaluating one's possible coping strategies when confronted with a stressor.
Secondary appraisal
Transition for better or worse in the course of a disease, usually indicated by a marked change in the intensity of signs and symptoms. Is a turning point in life and means that coping ways are ineffective and the person must change.
Crisis
A moment-to-moment present awareness with an attitude of nonjudgement, acceptance, and openness.
Mindfulness
Avoiding emotional conflicts by refusing to consciously acknowledge anything that causes intolerable emotional pain.
Denial
What a person experiences if symptoms of stress persist beyond the duration of a stressor.
Trauma
Total physiological response to stress that occurs during the alarm reaction stage of the general adaptation syndrome. Massive changes in all body systems prepare a human body to flee or remain and fight the stressor.
Fight-or-Flight Response
Making an effort to manage psychological stress.
Coping
Crises associated with normal and expected stages of growth and development (e.g., the response of menopause)
Developmental Crises
Occurs as a result of chronic stress.
Burnout
Transferring emotions, ideas, or wishes from a stressful situation to a less-anxiety-producing substitute.
Displacement
Generalized defense response of the body to stress; consists of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
Generalized Adaptation Syndrome
The third stage of the stress response, when the person attempts to adapt to the stressor. The body stabilizes, hormone levels stabilize, and heart rate, blood pressure, and cardiac output return to normal.
Resistance stage
Mechanisms that regulate emotional distress and thus give a person protection from anxiety and stress.
Ego-defense mechanisms
Unexpected crisis that arises suddenly in response to an external event or a conflict concerning a specific circumstance.
Situational crisis
Use of therapeutic techniques directed towards helping a patient resolve a particular and immediate problem.
Crisis Intervention
Patterning behavior after that of another person and assuming that person's qualities, characteristics, and actions.
Identification
- Are you having any thoughts of hurting yourself or others?
- Do you feel safe at home?
Questions to ask when assessing emotional state.
Experiencing a subjective sense of numbing and a reduced awareness of one's surroundings.
Dissociation
Coping with a stressor through actions and behaviors associated with an earlier developmental period
Regression