Glossary · Kinlantern

A

Acute: Describes symptoms that are severe and happening right now, or a short, intense phase of an illness. An acute episode often needs quick care. Healing from one takes time afterward.
Affect: The way a person's feelings show on the outside, in their face, voice, and body. Clinicians may write that affect looked flat, anxious, or bright to describe what they saw during a visit.
Antidepressant: A class of medicines used to treat depression, and often anxiety and some other conditions. They usually take several weeks to work. The psychiatrist chooses the medicine and adjusts it over time.
Antipsychotic: A class of medicines used to treat psychosis, including in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and sometimes severe depression. Newer types are more common today. The psychiatrist watches for side effects and adjusts the medicine as needed.
Anxiety: A feeling of worry, fear, or dread, often with a racing heart, tense muscles, or trouble sleeping. Everyone feels anxious sometimes. An anxiety disorder is when the feeling is strong, lasts a long time, and gets in the way of daily life.
Assertive community treatment (ACT): A team-based program that brings treatment and support to a person in the community, often around the clock. The team helps with medicine, therapy, housing, and work. It is often used for people who leave a hospital but still need a high level of care.
Assessment: The process a clinician uses to understand what is going on. It can include talking with the person, questions about health and family history, and sometimes lab tests or psychological testing. Assessment often takes more than one visit.

B

Bipolar disorder: A condition with big shifts in mood, energy, and activity. Periods of very high energy (mania or hypomania) come and go along with periods of depression. It is usually treated with medicine classes such as mood stabilizers, plus talk therapy.

C

Case manager: A professional who helps a person find and coordinate services such as treatment, housing, benefits, and transportation. Many case managers have social work training. They also help plan the return home when someone leaves a hospital.
Co-occurring disorder: When a person has a mental health condition and a substance use disorder at the same time. It is also called dual diagnosis. Treatment usually works best when both conditions are treated together by the same team.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): A common type of talk therapy. It helps a person notice automatic thoughts that are inaccurate or harmful, question them, and see how those thoughts shape feelings and actions. CBT is used for depression, anxiety, and many other conditions.
Compulsion: A repeated action a person feels driven to do, often to ease anxiety or to answer an obsession. Examples include checking or washing over and over. Compulsions are a feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Coordinated specialty care: A team approach for people in the early stages of psychosis. Specialists, the person, and family members share decisions about treatment. It focuses on recovery and on starting help early, when treatment tends to work best.
Crisis plan / safety plan: A written plan, made ahead of time, for what to do if things get worse. It usually lists warning signs, triggers, coping steps, people to call, the treatment team's numbers, and crisis lines such as 988. Many providers ask the person to make one and suggest sharing it with family.

D

Delusion: A firm belief that is not based in reality and does not change even when others show evidence against it. It is a symptom of psychosis, not a choice or a character flaw.
Depression: A condition with a low or empty mood that lasts weeks or more and affects sleep, energy, appetite, focus, and interest in life. It is more than ordinary sadness. It is common and treatable with talk therapy, medicine classes such as antidepressants, or both.
Diagnosis: The name a clinician gives to a pattern of symptoms after an assessment. In the United States, most mental health diagnoses follow criteria in the DSM. A diagnosis can take time and may change as the team learns more.
Discharge: Leaving a hospital or treatment program. Before discharge, a social worker or case manager usually helps make a plan for follow-up care. Families are often included in this planning when the person is coming home.
Discharge summary: A written record given when a person leaves the hospital. It sums up why they were admitted, what treatment happened, and what comes next, such as follow-up appointments and current medicines. It helps the next providers keep care going without gaps.
DSM: Short for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association. It lists the criteria clinicians use to make mental health diagnoses. The current edition is the DSM-5.
Dual diagnosis: Another name for a co-occurring disorder: a mental health condition and a substance use disorder in the same person. Care for both at the same time tends to work best.

E

Episode: A period of time when symptoms are active, such as a depressive episode or an episode of psychosis. Episodes have a start and an end. Treatment aims to shorten them and prevent new ones.

F

Family therapy: Talk therapy that includes family members along with the person. It can improve communication, ease tension at home, and help the family learn about the condition. Family education programs are a related kind of help.

H

Hallucination: Seeing, hearing, or sensing something that is not there, such as hearing voices. It is a symptom of psychosis. It feels completely real to the person who is having it.
HIPAA / release of information: HIPAA is the federal law that keeps a person's health records private. Because of it, providers cannot share details with family unless the person gives permission, often by signing a form called a release of information. Families can ask the person to arrange this, and can ask the team how sharing works.
Hypomania: A milder form of mania. Mood and energy are higher than usual for days at a time, but the person can usually still get through daily life. It occurs in some forms of bipolar disorder.

I

Inpatient: Care that happens while a person stays overnight in a hospital or psychiatric unit. It is for times when someone needs close watching, a safe setting, or medicine changes that call for monitoring. Stays are often short.
Intake: The first appointment with a new provider or program. It usually includes paperwork, questions about health and history, and a first assessment so the team can plan care.
Involuntary hold (psychiatric hold): A short hospital stay the person did not choose. The law allows it when clinicians believe the person is a danger to self or others, but names, rules, and time limits differ by state. A court hearing is usually needed to extend one, and many families first hear the term in an emergency room.

M

Mania: A period of unusually high energy and mood, less need for sleep, fast talk, racing thoughts, and risky choices. It is a feature of bipolar disorder. Severe mania can include psychosis and may need hospital care.
Medication management: Ongoing visits with a psychiatrist or other prescriber to check how a medicine is working, watch for side effects, and adjust the plan. Finding the right medicine can take several tries. That is normal and not a sign of failure.
Mobile crisis team: Mental health workers who come to where a crisis is happening, such as a home. They assess the situation, try to calm it, and connect the person with care. In some areas they work with police or the emergency room.
Mood stabilizer: A class of medicines used mainly to treat bipolar disorder by evening out mood swings. Some are also used when symptoms are mixed or change quickly. The psychiatrist chooses the medicine and follows how it is working.

N

Negative symptoms: Symptoms of psychosis or schizophrenia that involve a loss of something normal. Examples are less motivation, less emotion showing, less speech, or pulling away from people. They can look like laziness, but they are part of the illness.

O

Obsession: An unwanted thought, image, or urge that keeps coming back and causes distress. The person often knows it does not make sense but cannot easily stop it. Obsessions are a feature of OCD.
Outpatient: Care a person gets while living at home, such as visits to a clinic, a therapist's office, or a community mental health center. Most mental health treatment is outpatient.

P

Partial hospitalization / intensive outpatient program: Day programs that give more support than weekly visits, without an overnight stay. Partial hospitalization runs several hours a day on most days; an intensive outpatient program (IOP) is fewer hours, so the person can still work or attend school. Both are often used as a step down after a hospital stay.
Peer support specialist: A trained person who has lived through a mental health or substance use condition and now helps others. They offer encouragement, share what helped them, and support the person's goals. Many are certified by their state.
Prognosis: A clinician's best estimate of how a condition is likely to unfold over time with treatment. It is not a promise. Many people improve, and steady treatment that starts early tends to help.
Psychiatrist: A medical doctor (MD or DO) who specializes in mental health. Psychiatrists can assess, diagnose, prescribe and adjust medicines, and provide therapy. Some have extra training in children and teens, older adults, or substance use.
Psychoeducation: Teaching a person and their family about the condition, how treatment works, coping skills, and how to spot early signs of relapse. It can ease tension at home. Many NAMI programs are a form of psychoeducation.
Psychologist: A mental health professional with a doctoral degree in psychology. Psychologists do assessments and psychological testing, make diagnoses, and provide therapy. In most states they do not prescribe medicine.
Psychosis: Losing touch with what is real, which can include hallucinations, delusions, confused thinking, or paranoia. Psychosis is a symptom, not a diagnosis, and it can happen in several conditions. It is treatable, and getting help early tends to work best.
Psychotherapy (talk therapy): Treatment that involves talking with a trained therapist to understand and change troubling feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. It can be one-on-one, with a family, or in a group. Trust between the person and the therapist matters a lot.

R

Recovery: A process of change in which a person improves their health, lives a self-directed life, and works toward their full potential. Recovery does not always mean every symptom is gone. Setbacks are a normal part of it.
Relapse: The return of symptoms after a period of doing better. It can happen even when a person follows the treatment plan. Knowing the early warning signs, and having a plan for them, helps a relapse get caught sooner.
Remission: A period when symptoms are gone or much reduced. Remission can last a long time. Treatment often continues during remission to lower the chance of relapse.

S

Schizophrenia: A serious mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, and can include psychosis. It is usually first diagnosed between the late teens and age 30, after a first episode of psychosis. Treatment can help people work, study, and keep relationships.
Side effect: An unwanted effect of a medicine, such as an upset stomach, sleepiness, or weight change. Many side effects are mild or fade within a few weeks. If they continue, the prescriber can often change the dose or the medicine, so reporting them matters.
Social worker: A professional who helps with practical needs such as housing, benefits, and discharge planning. Clinical social workers have a master's degree and a license, and can also assess mental health and provide therapy.
Stimulant: A class of medicines that increase alertness and focus. They are mainly prescribed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and are used under a provider's supervision.
Substance use disorder: A condition in which the use of alcohol or other drugs becomes hard to control and causes harm to health, work, or relationships. It is a medical condition, not a moral failing. Treatment works, and it often works best alongside care for any other mental health condition.
Suicidal ideation: Thoughts about ending one's life, from passing thoughts to a plan. Asking someone directly whether they are thinking about suicide does not increase the risk, and the sources recommend asking. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) is available any time; call 911 if there is immediate danger.
Supportive housing: Housing that comes with help, such as staff support, case management, or links to treatment. A stable, safe place to live is one of the four main parts of recovery. Options differ by community and can take time to find.
Symptom: A change in feeling, thinking, or behavior that is part of a condition. Examples include sleep changes, pulling away from others, hopelessness, or hearing voices. A symptom on its own is not a diagnosis.

T

Therapist / counselor: A master's-level professional trained to assess mental health and provide talk therapy. Titles vary and can include counselor, clinician, or marriage and family therapist. They are licensed by the state.
Treatment plan: A written plan the person and the care team make together. It lists goals, the treatments to be used, such as therapy or medicine classes, and who does what. Plans are reviewed and adjusted over time, and people do better when they help design their own.
Trigger: Something that sets off symptoms or makes them worse, such as a stressful event, poor sleep, or substance use. Triggers differ from person to person. Crisis plans often list known triggers so they can be watched for.

W

Withdrawal: The body's reaction when a substance or medicine it has adjusted to is stopped or cut back. Withdrawal from alcohol can be dangerous and needs medical supervision. Stopping psychiatric medicine suddenly can also cause uncomfortable effects, which is why prescribers taper it slowly.

If you need help right now

Call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Free, 24 hours a day. Press 2 for Spanish. Call for an interpreter in more than 240 other languages.
Text HOME to 741741 Crisis Text Line. Free, 24 hours a day. Text service is in English and Spanish.
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if there is immediate danger.

For anything less urgent, call your family member's psychiatrist or clinic.

Sources

Every numbered mark in this guide points to one of the sources below. Kinlantern restates what these organizations publish for families in plainer words. It does not copy them, and it adds nothing of its own. Follow any link to read the original.