Chronic Stress as Allostatic Displacement: HPA Axis Dysregulation, Wrong-Attractor Capture, and the Formal Geometry of Burnout

We apply the Displacement Framework to chronic stress and allostatic load, formalizing the stress reference state S0_stress as a five-dimensional vector covering cortisol baseline, HPA reactivity, negative-feedback sensitivity, sympathetic tone, and allostatic reserve. Acute stress is modeled as correct displacement with intact return; chronic stress as persistent displacement driving accumulated allostatic load Phi_stress.

We derive propositions on wrong-attractor capture, burnout as terminal depletion wrong attractor with paradoxical hypocortisolism, adverse childhood experiences as landscape deformation, poverty as structural stressor, and stress inoculation as basin deepening.