Glossary

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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 disorders (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 (eg. feelings of sadness and associated symptoms such as insomnia, poor appetite, and weight loss).

Behavior Disorders / Emotional Disturbance: Many terms are used interchangably 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: One's sense of the self and one's body.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Borderline personality disorder is a disorder of relating to others and to self.

Bulimia: An eating disorder characterized by binge eating (uncontrolled consumption of large amounts of food), attempts to compensate for food intake by purging