®Reference
The Clinical Lexicon
Every specialized term used on this site, defined in plain language — with a path to the full article wherever one exists. Definitions here are starting points, not diagnostic criteria.
Neurodivergence
- AuDHD
- Co-occurring autism and ADHD in the same person; the combination produces patterns neither neurotype fully explains alone. → Forty Years Late
- Autistic burnout
- A state of chronic exhaustion, skill loss, and reduced tolerance to stimulus caused by prolonged demands exceeding capacity; distinct from clinical depression (Raymaker et al., 2020). → Autistic Burnout: Definition, Causes & Suicide Risk
- Meltdown
- An involuntary overload response expressed outward — intense distress, agitation, or crying. Not a tantrum, not manipulation, and not within voluntary control once underway. → Autistic Meltdowns vs. Shutdowns
- Shutdown
- The same overload mechanism turned inward: withdrawal, reduced or absent speech, and disconnection. → Autistic Meltdowns vs. Shutdowns
- Sensory overload
- Sensory input exceeding the nervous system's processing capacity in the moment; the usual precursor to meltdown or shutdown.
- Masking (camouflaging)
- Suppressing or performing over neurodivergent traits to pass as neurotypical; research distinguishes compensation, masking, and assimilation (Hull et al., 2019). → Autism Camouflaging & Masking
- CAT-Q
- The Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire, the primary research measure of masking (Hull et al., 2019). → Autism Camouflaging & Masking
- Alexithymia
- Difficulty identifying and describing one's own emotional states; common alongside autism and ADHD and frequently mistaken for not caring. → Alexithymia in Autism & ADHD
- Interoception
- The sense of the body's internal signals: hunger, thirst, pain, temperature, heartbeat, and emotion as physical sensation. → What the Body Already Knew
- Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD)
- An intense, fast pain response to perceived rejection, criticism, or failure, widely reported with ADHD; a clinical descriptor with an emerging, still-thin evidence base rather than a DSM diagnosis. → Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria & ADHD
- Double empathy problem
- The finding that misunderstanding between autistic and non-autistic people runs in both directions — a mutual translation gap, not a one-sided deficit (Milton, 2012). → The Double Empathy Problem
- Monotropism
- An attention style concentrated in fewer, deeper channels of interest; a leading account of autistic cognition and the basis of hyperfocus and special interests.
- Insistence on sameness
- Distress driven by disrupted predictability itself, independent of any relationship; a core autistic trait often misread through relational frameworks.
- Stimming
- Self-stimulatory movement or sound — rocking, tapping, humming, fidgeting — used for regulation, focus, expression, or joy.
- Sensory seeking / avoiding / sensitivity / low registration
- The four sensory processing patterns in Dunn's model, produced by crossing neurological threshold (how fast input registers) with response strategy (active or passive).
- Spoon theory
- Christine Miserandino's metaphor (2003) for limited daily energy: every task costs spoons, and when they're gone, they're gone — regardless of desire.
- Boom-or-bust cycle
- Overexertion on capable days that forces crash days after; the pattern pacing strategies exist to flatten.
- Executive function
- The mind's management processes: task initiation, planning, working memory, time sense, and switching between activities.
- Diagnostic overshadowing
- The error of attributing every new symptom, complaint, or account to a person's existing diagnosis, so real and unrelated problems go unexamined. → Ableism as a Weapon
Trauma & Abuse Dynamics
- DARVO
- Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender: a perpetrator response pattern in which the accused denies the harm, attacks the credibility of the person naming it, and claims the victim role (Freyd, 1997). → DARVO: When Abusers Accuse Their Victims
- Flying monkeys
- Third parties recruited by an abusive person — knowingly or not — to pressure, surveil, harass, or discredit a target on the abuser's behalf. → Flying Monkeys & Smear Campaigns
- Smear campaign
- A coordinated reputation attack designed to isolate a target and pre-discredit anything they might later disclose. → Flying Monkeys & Smear Campaigns
- Reactive abuse
- A provoked outburst from a victim, reframed by the provoker as proof the victim is the real abuser; a clinical descriptor of a dynamic, not a DSM category. → Reactive Abuse
- Coercive control
- A pattern of domination built from isolation, monitoring, degradation, financial restriction, and micro-regulation of daily life — harm that rarely requires a visible incident.
- Identified patient
- The family member a dysfunctional system unconsciously assigns to carry and display its distress, so the system itself never has to change. → The Family Sin-Eater
- Sanism
- Systemic prejudice against people perceived as mentally ill, operating like other structural biases; the term is associated with legal scholar Michael Perlin. → Ableism as a Weapon
- Hypervigilance
- A trauma-shaped state of continuous threat-scanning that persists after the danger has ended.
Gender & Identity
- Gender-affirming care
- Evidence-based medical and psychological support aligned with a person's gender, delivered under international standards. → Hormone Therapy & WPATH SOC8
- WPATH SOC8
- The World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care, Version 8 (Coleman et al., 2022) — the governing international clinical standard for transgender and gender-diverse healthcare. → Hormone Therapy & WPATH SOC8
Buddhist Psychology
- Interbeing
- Thich Nhat Hanh's term for radical interdependence: nothing exists separately, including a self; everything is made of non-self elements.
- Impermanence
- The observation that all conditions — cells, moods, relationships, identities — are already changing; resisting this is a primary engine of suffering.
Definitions on this page are educational orientation, not diagnostic criteria, and several terms (noted above) are clinical descriptors rather than formal diagnoses. Sources for the research-anchored entries appear in the linked articles and on our Evidence Standards & Source Library page. Current as of July 2026. Evidence Standards & Source Library.
Content on this site is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Nothing here creates a therapist–client relationship. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room.