Depression Glossary, part I

*denotes items of heightened relevance

Acrophobia – fear of heights.*
Alienation – the feeling of a lack of relationships or loss of relationships with others.*
Anhedonia - a decreased ability or inability to experience pleasure or joy.
Automatic Negative Thought (ANT) - an unpleasant thought which is automatically triggered by a situation and results in increased anxiety and avoidance and decreased effective coping.*
Anxiety Disorder - a disorder characterized by unrealistic irrational and disabling fear or anxiety. Includes panic disorder with and without agoraphobia, agoraphobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, social phobia, post traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobia.*

Bipolar Disorder – a mood disorder in which the person experiences both manic and depressive episodes.*

Compulsive – used to describe thoughts or behavior that are driven by anxiety.
Cyclothymia – a mood disorder characterized by alternating episodes of hypomania and depression.*

Defense-Oriented Response – behavior with the primary purpose of defending the organism against harm.
Demoralization – the perception and feeling of being ineffective, and unable to solving problems, or control the current situation or the future.*
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) – The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of American Psychiatric Association (APA). The current version is DSM-IV.
Drug Addiction – psychological and physiological substance dependence.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – an anxiety disorder characterized by chronic excessive and persistent worry about a number of issues such as family, health, or finances, when there is no obvious threat present.*

Housebound – an inability to leave one’s house. Common in severe cases of panic, agoraphobia, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Can also occur in social phobia.*
Hypervigilance – extreme sensitivity to cues that may signal presence of feared object or situation.*
Hypochondria - an exaggerated concern about bodily processes and the possibility of having various diseases.*
Hypomania – a temporary mild to moderate elevated (manic) mood.*

Insomnia – problem with falling asleep or waking up resulting in lack of sleep and fatigue.*
Introspection – the process of observing and reporting on one’s thoughts, feelings and inner experience.*

Melancholic Subtype – subtype of depression that involves a loss of pleasure (anhedonia), sleep problems, changes in eating appetite, motor agitation or retardation, and feelings of guilt and worthlessness.*
Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP) - a relatively benign cardiac condition involving a heart valve abnormality. MVP has been associated with autonomic nervous system dysfunction and some anxiety disorders in which case it is referred to as Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome.*
Mood Disorders – problems characterized by disturbances of mood that are are intense enough to cause suffering and maladaptive behavior.