behaviorceutical

Etymology

Blend of behavior + pharmaceutical. Coined by behavioural neuroscientist Kelly Lambert in 2011.

Why this word is great

BEHAVIORCEUTICAL — [Noun] A deliberate, self-administered activity that produces measurable mental health benefits, analogous to pharmaceutical effects. Blend of behavior (from Middle English behavour, "conduct," from behave) + pharmaceutical (from Latin pharmaceuticus, "of drugs," from Ancient Greek pharmakeutikos, "of drugs"). Coined by behavioral neuroscientist Kelly Lambert in 2011. Unlike "self-help" (which leans on abstract ideology) or "distraction" (which offers mere temporal relief), a behaviorceutical is a targeted intervention with neurochemical veracity. It is the dopamine pulse of planting tomatoes at dawn, the cortisol-dampening weight of a weighted blanket, the prefrontal cortex sighing into order during a sudoku grid—evidence that the most potent remedies sometimes wear no label, only intention and repetition.

noun

  1. An activity that can improve an individual's mental health.“We see this commercialization as the critical final step in translating the research documenting the health-damaging effects of psychosocial risk factors and the potential of behavioral interventions to ameliorate those effects into commercial behavioral products—analogous to the pharmaceutical industry's drug products—that can be widely distributed—by a new "behaviorceutical" industry?—to prevent”