Stress in questionless circumstances may be experienced positively. Eustress, for example, can be an adaptive response prompting the activation of enclosed resources to meet challenges and achieve goals.

The title "stress" Stress Balls had none of its common generic senses before the 1950s. As a semi-psychological term referring to hardship or coercion, it dated from the 14th century. It is a form of the Average English destresse, derived via Inactive French from the Latin stringere – to draw tight. It had long been in end in physics to refer to the in-house distribution of a fury exerted on a material body, resulting in strain.