The Picture of Health: Psychological Conditions and Disorders

If you want to improve your understanding of the human mind, study these psychological conditions and disorders. Learn about amnesia, claustrophobia, pyromania, and more. This vocabulary list is sure to cure your logophobia (fear of words).
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. addiction
    being dependent on something habit-forming
  2. ADHD
    condition characterized by behavioral and learning disorders
  3. affective disorder
    any mental disorder not caused by detectable organic abnormalities of the brain and in which a major disturbance of emotions is predominant
  4. agoraphobia
    a morbid fear of open spaces
  5. amnesia
    partial or total loss of memory
  6. anorexia nervosa
    (psychiatry) a psychological disorder characterized by somatic delusions that one is too fat despite being emaciated
  7. antisocial personality disorder
    a personality disorder characterized by amorality and lack of affect; capable of violent acts without guilt feelings (`psychopathic personality' was once widely used but was superseded by `sociopathic personality' to indicate the social aspects of the disorder, but now `antisocial personality disorder' is the preferred term)
  8. aphasia
    inability to use language because of a brain lesion
  9. Asperger's syndrome
    a psychiatric disorder usually noted during early school years; characterized by impaired social relations and by repetitive patterns of behavior
  10. autism
    a condition involving social and communication difficulties
  11. bipolar disorder
    a mental disorder characterized by episodes of mania and depression
  12. bulimia
    a disorder of eating in which the person alternates between strong craving for food and aversion to food; characterized by excessive eating followed by periods of fasting or self-induced vomiting
  13. catalepsy
    a trancelike state characterized by rigid muscles and an inability to move
  14. catatonia
    a form of schizophrenia characterized by a tendency to remain in a fixed stuporous state for long periods; the catatonia may give way to short periods of extreme excitement
  15. claustrophobia
    a morbid fear of being closed in a confined space
  16. conversion disorder
    a mental disorder characterized by the conversion of mental conflict into somatic forms (into paralysis or anesthesia having no apparent cause)
  17. delirium
    a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion
  18. delusion
    an erroneous belief held in the face of contrary evidence
  19. dependence
    being abnormally reliant on something habit-forming
  20. depersonalization disorder
    emotional dissociative disorder in which there is loss of contact with your own personal reality accompanied by feelings of unreality and strangeness
  21. depressive
    someone suffering psychological depression
  22. dissociative disorder
    dissociation so severe that the usually integrated functions of consciousness and perception of self break down
  23. folie a deux
    a delusion experienced by two people simultaneously
  24. fugue
    dissociative disorder in which a person forgets who they are
  25. generalized anxiety disorder
    an anxiety disorder characterized by chronic free-floating anxiety and such symptoms as tension or sweating or trembling or lightheadedness or irritability etc that has lasted for more than six months
  26. hypersomnia
    an inability to stay awake
  27. hypochondriasis
    chronic and abnormal anxiety about imaginary symptoms and ailments
  28. insomnia
    an inability to sleep
  29. kleptomania
    an impulse to steal in the absence of any economic motive
  30. mania
    a mood disorder characterized by excessive responses
  31. manic
    affected with or marked by frenzy uncontrolled by reason
  32. melancholia
    extreme depression or sadness
  33. Munchausen's syndrome
    syndrome consisting of feigning acute and dramatic illness for which no clinical evidence is ever found
  34. mutism
    the condition of being unable or unwilling to speak
  35. narcissistic personality
    personality marked by self-love and self-absorption
  36. narcolepsy
    a disorder characterized by sudden episodes of deep sleep
  37. neurosis
    a mental illness that makes you behave in an unusual way
  38. night terror
    an emotional episode (usually in young children) in which the person awakens in terror with feelings of anxiety and fear but is unable to remember any incident that might have provoked those feelings
  39. obsessive-compulsive disorder
    an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent and persistent thoughts and feelings and repetitive, ritualized behaviors
  40. panic disorder
    an anxiety disorder characterized by unpredictable panic attacks; the attacks are usually severe but brief
  41. personality disorder
    inflexible and maladaptive patterns of behavior
  42. phobia
    an anxiety disorder characterized by irrational fear
  43. pica
    an eating disorder, frequent in children, in which non-nutritional objects are eaten persistently
  44. posttraumatic stress disorder
    an anxiety disorder associated with serious traumatic events and characterized by such symptoms as survivor guilt, reliving the trauma in dreams, numbness and lack of involvement with reality, or recurrent thoughts and images
  45. psychological disorder
    a psychological disorder of thought or emotion
  46. psychosis
    severe mental disorder in which contact with reality is lost
  47. pyromania
    an uncontrollable desire to set fire to things
  48. schizophrenia
    a psychotic disorder characterized by distortions of reality
  49. schizotypal personality
    characterized by symptoms similar to but less severe than schizophrenia
  50. sleep apnea
    an interruption in breathing that occurs during rest
  51. sleep disorder
    a disturbance of the normal sleep pattern
  52. somnambulism
    walking by a person who is asleep
  53. tic
    a local and habitual twitching, especially in the face
  54. Tourette's syndrome
    neurological disorder characterized by facial grimaces and tics and movements of the upper body and grunts and shouts and coprolalia
  55. trichotillomania
    an irresistible urge to pull out your own hair
Created on Wed Jan 04 09:46:22 EST 2017 (updated Fri Mar 31 16:41:35 EDT 2017)

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