Professional Terms

Question 1

Bulimia

Answer 1

Recurrent episodes of binge eating, sometimes in a secretive manner and sometimes followed by self-induced vomiting.

Question 2

Addictive Personality

Answer 2

A set of traits that develop in response to habit forming drugs or compulsive behavior.

Question 3

Apathy

Answer 3

A state of indifference in a situation that would ordinarily arouse some response.

Question 4

Ambivalence

Answer 4

Simultaneous existence of contradictory emotional attitudes toward the same person, e.g. love and hate. Suggest pathology only when present in an extreme form.

Question 5

Aphasia

Answer 5

Loss or impairment of ability to communicate and understand language symbols - Involving loss of power of expression by speech, writing, or signs, or loss of ability to comprehend written or spoken language - resulting from brain injury or disease.

Question 6

Anxiety

Answer 6

Apprehension, tension or uneasiness from anticipation of danger, the source of which is largely unknown or not recognized. Anxiety is primarily of intrapsychic origin, as contrasted to fear, which is an emotional response to a consciously recognized threat or danger.

Question 7

Affect

Answer 7

Refers to the manner in which a client’s mood is expressed. Descriptive words sometimes include: expressive, labile, flat, blunted, inappropriate, etc. Affect and emotion are sometimes used interchangeably.

Question 8

Cirrhosis

Answer 8

Chronic liver disease marked by scarring of liver tissue and eventual liver failure.

Question 9

Cognition

Answer 9

Refers to the mental process of comprehension, judgment, memory, and reasoning, as contrasted with emotional processes.

Question 10

Codependency

Answer 10

A mechanism whereby a person takes responsibility for the actions of another and helps one avoid facing problems.

Question 11

Defense Mechanism

Answer 11

Unconscious intrapsychic processes serving to provide relief from emotional conflict and anxiety. Conscious efforts are frequently made for the same reasons, but true defense mechanisms are unconscious.

Question 12

Decompensation

Answer 12

The deterioration of functional behavior to a worsening of pathologic behavior.

Question 13

Congenital

Answer 13

Literally, present at birth. It may include conditions that arise during fetal development or with the birth process as well as hereditary of genetically determined conditions. It does not refer to the conditions that appear after birth.

Question 14

Compulsion

Answer 14

An uncontrollable urge to act against one’s better judgement.