Glossary
Acting Out: Self-abusive, aggressive, violent and/or disruptive behavior
Addiction: An addiction occurs when you cannot permanently stop yourself from doing something.
Adjustment Disorders: A type of condition with emotional or behavioral symptoms that occur in response to identifiable stress in a person's life.
Adolescence: Period of growth and development from puberty to maturity.
Affect: describes observable behavior that represents an emotion. Common examples of affect are sadness, fear, joy, and anger.
Affective disorders: Refers to disorders of mood. Examples would include Major Depressive Disorder, Dysthymia, Depressive Disorder, Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood, Bipolar Disorder.
Agitation: Excessive motor activity that accompanies and is associated with a feeling of inner tension.
Agoraphobia: Anxiety about being in places or situations in which escape might be difficult or embarrassing, or in which help may not be available should a panic attack occur.
Algophobia: Fear of pain.
Alienation: The estrangement felt in a setting one views as foreign, unpredictable, or unacceptable.
Ambivalence: The coexistence of contradictory emotions, attitudes, ideas, or desires with respect to a particular person, object, or situation.
Anger: The experience of intense annoyance that inspires hostile and aggressive thoughts and actions.
Antidepressants: Medications that treat depression, as well as other psychiatric disorders.
Anti-psychotic: Medication for the treatment of psychosis
Anorexia Nervosa: Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder
Anxiety: is a complex combination of negative emotions that includes fear apprehension and worry.
Anxiety Disorders: Anxiety disorders cause intense feelings of anxiety and tension when there is no real danger. The symptoms cause significant distress and interfere with daily activities.
Apathy: lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern.
Asperger’s Syndrome: A neurobiological pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), which is characterized by normal intelligence and language development, but deficiencies in social and communication skills.
Attention: The ability to focus in a sustained manner on a particular stimulus or activity.
Attention Deficit / Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorders: An attention-deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) is a developmental disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate degrees of inattention, hyper/over activity, and impulsivity.
Autism: A childhood disorder usually appearing by the age of three, which is characterized by withdrawal, self-stimulation, cognitive deficits and language disorders.
Bereavement: A reaction to the death of a loved one (e.g., feelings of sadness and associated symptoms such as insomnia, poor appetite and weight loss).
Behavior Disorders / Emotional Disturbance: Many terms are used interchangeably to classify children who exhibit extreme or unacceptable chronic behavior problems.
Biofeedback: A technique for controlling bodily functions usually thought to be involuntary (not under your conscious control.)
Bipolar Disorder / Manic Depression: A serious mood disorder which involves extreme mood swings or highs (mania) and lows (depression), sometimes termed manic-depressive.
Body image: Sense of one’s self and one's body.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Borderline personality disorder is a disorder affecting others and one’s self.
Bulimia: An eating disorder characterized by binge eating (uncontrolled consumption of large amounts of food), attempts to compensate for food intake by purging.
