A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week's term is seasonal affective disorder. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a subtype of depression or bipolar with symptoms that occur based on a seasonal pattern. It was first described in 1984 as the result of an American study of mostly… Continue reading What Is… Seasonal Affective Disorder
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week's term is conversion disorder, now known as functional neurological symptom disorder. Conversion disorder is a type of somatic disorder that involves the conversion of mental illness into neurological-type symptoms, involving sensory and/or motor impairments. In the DSM-5, the name… Continue reading What Is… Conversion Disorder
Depression – it's one word to describe so many different things. The many faces of depression means that no one person's experience can ever capture what depression is. It's a simple word for a complex illness, so let's chat a bit about what that complexity can look like. Major depressive episode symptoms The list of… Continue reading The Many Faces of Depression
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is reactive attachment disorder. The DSM-5 classifies reactive attachment disorder (RAD) as a trauma-related disorder that develops in early childhood as a result of severe neglect and maltreament. It's been observed in children whose parents have an illness… Continue reading What Is… Reactive Attachment Disorder
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is delusional disorder. Delusional disorder falls within the DSM-5 group of psychotic disorders, which also includes schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. However, it's different, in that its effects are much more compartmentalized. In delusional disorder, the delusional beliefs are… Continue reading What Is… Delusional Disorder
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is selective mutism. Selective mutism (SM) is a rare disorder that begins in childhood and is characterized by an inability to speak in select social contexts (hence the "selective" part of the name). It used to be called… Continue reading What Is… Selective Mutism
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a type of eating disorder that involves restricting food intake, not with the aim of weight loss, but more along the lines of picky eating twisted to… Continue reading What Is… Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is paranoid personality disorder. With this post on paranoid personality disorder (PPD), we've now covered all ten personality disorders in the DSM-5 (you can find the rest of them in the Psychology Corner). PPD falls within the DSM-5's… Continue reading What Is… Paranoid Personality Disorder
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is borderline personality disorder. I've contemplated writing this post for a while, and was somewhat reluctant because there are quite a few bloggers out there with borderline personality disorder (BPD), who can certainly tell it a lot better than… Continue reading What Is… Borderline Personality Disorder
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is avoidant personality disorder. Avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) falls within the DSM-5's cluster C of anxious/fearful personality disorders. It's characterized by intense feelings of inadequacy and fear of social rejection, and avoidance is relied upon as a coping… Continue reading What Is… Avoidant Personality Disorder