®Reference
Glossary of Terms
Clinical and theoretical terms used across this site — defined plainly, with links to the articles where each concept is explored in depth. Use this page when you encounter a term you don't recognize, or want to understand the research behind a word before reading further.
Maintained by Mx. Love C. Dialogos, LMFT — Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist & Buddhist Chaplain.
33 terms defined — click any article link to read the full context
Alexithymia
Difficulty identifying, describing, or distinguishing one's own emotions — and sometimes difficulty recognizing emotions in others. Not a diagnosis, but a dimensional trait that runs higher in autistic and ADHD populations. Clinically significant in risk assessment because it can make standard self-report tools unreliable: a client may not be minimizing distress, they may genuinely not have access to the emotional signal the tool is asking about.
Assimilation (camouflaging subtype)
One of three subtypes measured by the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q). Assimilation refers specifically to the experience of feeling that social interaction requires 'putting on an act' — that connection isn't genuine because a performed self is standing in for the real one. Research by Sarah Cassidy found assimilation showed the strongest link to thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation among the three subtypes.
AuDHD
Informal shorthand for the co-occurrence of autism and ADHD in the same person. Until the DSM-5 (2013), clinicians were formally prohibited from diagnosing both simultaneously. AuDHD is not simply 'autism plus ADHD' — the two conditions interact in ways that produce a distinct clinical profile, including the highest suicide attempt rate of any neurodivergent subgroup studied.
Autistic Burnout
Defined by Raymaker et al. (2020) as a state of chronic exhaustion, reduced functioning, and increased autistic traits resulting from sustained masking and overextension without adequate support. Distinct from occupational burnout: it is not simply tiredness from overwork, but a collapse of the compensatory systems an autistic person uses to navigate a neurotypical world. Linked in research to elevated suicide risk.
Camouflaging
The conscious or unconscious suppression and substitution of autistic traits to pass as neurotypical in social environments. Measured by the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q), which identifies three subtypes: compensation, masking, and assimilation. Camouflaging is more heavily socialized into people whose survival has depended on reading a room correctly — women, LGBTQIA2S+ people, and people of color navigating majority-white or majority-cisheteronormative spaces. Research links it directly to thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation.
CAT-Q (Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire)
A validated self-report measure developed to assess camouflaging behavior in autistic and high-autistic-trait adults. Measures three subtypes: compensation (developing strategies to compensate for social difficulties), masking (hiding autistic traits), and assimilation (trying to fit in with others). Used in research linking camouflaging to suicide risk.
C-SSRS (Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale)
A widely used structured interview tool for assessing suicide risk. Measures ideation intensity, behavior, and lethality. Research has identified limitations in its use with neurodivergent populations: alexithymia can reduce the reliability of self-report items, and the tool was not normed on autistic or ADHD populations.
Defeat and Entrapment
Two psychological states central to the Integrated Motivational-Volitional (IMV) model of suicide. Defeat is the felt sense of having lost a struggle; entrapment is the felt sense of having no way out of that defeat. Research using the IMV model found that camouflaging in autistic adults predicted suicidality through the defeat-entrapment pathway, in addition to the thwarted belongingness pathway identified by the Interpersonal Theory.
Double Empathy Problem
A theoretical framework proposed by Damian Milton (2012) arguing that the social difficulties observed between autistic and non-autistic people are not a deficit located solely in the autistic person, but a bidirectional breakdown in mutual understanding. Non-autistic people are equally poor at reading autistic social cues, but this is rarely framed as a deficit in the non-autistic party. The framework challenges the traditional 'theory of mind deficit' account of autism.
DSM-IV Exclusion Clause (ADHD/Autism)
A formal diagnostic rule in the DSM-IV (1994–2013) that listed pervasive developmental disorders as an exclusion criterion for ADHD. This meant clinicians were prohibited from diagnosing both ADHD and autism in the same person, regardless of clinical presentation. The exclusion was lifted in the DSM-5 (2013). Anyone assessed before 2013 was evaluated under a framework that could not, by design, see the full picture — a structural cause of widespread misdiagnosis in adults now in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.
Emotional Dysregulation
Difficulty modulating emotional responses in proportion to their triggers — responses that are more intense, longer-lasting, or harder to recover from than the situation would typically warrant. A core feature of ADHD (and present in autism), and a key mechanism in the ADHD pathway to suicide risk. Distinct from mood disorder: the dysregulation is often rapid-onset and rapid-recovery, rather than sustained.
Flying Monkeys
In the context of narcissistic abuse, people who are recruited — knowingly or unknowingly — by an abusive person to carry out harassment, surveillance, or reputation attacks on their behalf. The term comes from the Wizard of Oz. Flying monkeys may believe they are acting on accurate information provided by the abuser, or may be aware they are participating in a campaign.
Hegemonic Masculinity
A concept from R.W. Connell's 1987 Gender and Power describing the dominant, idealized form of masculinity within a given social order — the standard against which all other masculinities (and femininities) are measured and structurally penalized. Later scholars extended the underlying logic to other axes of dominance. Used in clinical writing here to describe how structural pressure compounds when a person holds distance from the 'default' identity on multiple axes simultaneously.
IMV Model (Integrated Motivational-Volitional Model)
A theoretical model of suicide developed by Rory O'Connor that extends the Interpersonal Theory by adding a volitional phase — the factors that translate suicidal ideation into behavior. The model proposes three phases: pre-motivational (background factors), motivational (defeat, entrapment, ideation), and volitional (what moves a person from ideation to action). Used in neurodivergent suicide research alongside the Interpersonal Theory.
Impulsivity
In ADHD, a reduced ability to pause between an impulse and an action — a structural feature of executive function, not a character trait. Clinically significant in suicide risk because it shortens the window between suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior. The same level of ideation carries higher behavioral risk in a person with ADHD impulsivity than in a person without it.
Interpersonal Theory of Suicide
A theoretical framework developed by Thomas Joiner and colleagues (Van Orden et al., 2010) proposing that suicidal desire requires two psychological states to co-occur: thwarted belongingness (the felt sense of 'I am alone') and perceived burdensomeness ('I am a burden to the people around me'). The theory has been applied to autistic populations by Sarah Cassidy and colleagues, who found camouflaging predicts thwarted belongingness, which in turn predicts suicidality.
Intersectionality
A framework coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) to describe how multiple systems of oppression — race, gender, class, sexuality, disability — interact and compound, rather than operating in parallel. Applied to suicide risk: a client holding multiple marginalized identities is not facing the sum of separate risks, but a compounding architecture where each axis of marginalization changes the terrain the others operate on.
Lethal Means Restriction
A suicide prevention strategy that reduces access to the most lethal methods of suicide — particularly firearms and medications — during periods of elevated risk. Evidence-based: the majority of people who survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide, and most attempts are impulsive, meaning reducing access to lethal means during a crisis window saves lives. Particularly important in ADHD, where impulsivity shortens the gap between ideation and action.
Masking
The suppression of autistic or ADHD traits to conform to neurotypical social expectations. Used both as a general term and as one of three specific subtypes in the CAT-Q (alongside compensation and assimilation). Masking is more heavily socialized into people whose survival has depended on social conformity — women, LGBTQIA2S+ people, and people of color. Sustained masking is a primary driver of autistic burnout.
Meltdown (Autistic)
An involuntary response to sensory, emotional, or cognitive overload in which the nervous system loses its ability to regulate — expressed outwardly through crying, shouting, physical movement, or other visible behavior. Distinct from a tantrum (which is goal-directed) and from a shutdown (which is the inward version of the same overload). Not a choice or a behavioral problem.
Minority Stress
Chronic stress arising from stigma, discrimination, and the social conditions of holding a marginalized identity. Originally theorized by Ilan Meyer in the context of sexual minority populations; subsequently applied to other marginalized groups. Minority stress is distinct from general life stress: it is structural, ongoing, and not resolvable by individual coping strategies alone.
Neurodiversity Paradigm
A framework, with roots in disability studies and sociology, that treats neurological variation as a natural form of human diversity rather than as pathology to be corrected. Coined by sociologist Judy Singer in the late 1990s. The paradigm does not deny that neurodivergent people face real challenges — it locates many of those challenges in the mismatch between a neurodivergent nervous system and environments built for a neurotypical one.
Perceived Burdensomeness
One of two psychological states required for suicidal desire in the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide — the belief that one is a burden to the people around them, and that those people would be better off without them. Distinct from low self-esteem: it is specifically relational, a belief about one's impact on others. Must co-occur with thwarted belongingness for suicidal desire to develop, according to the theory.
Reactive Abuse
A pattern in abusive dynamics where an abuser deliberately provokes a target until the target reacts — then reframes the target's reaction as the abuse. The term is used in survivor communities; it is not a clinical diagnosis. The mechanism is important to understand because it can cause targets to doubt their own perceptions and accept responsibility for the dynamic.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)
Not a formal diagnosis, but a well-documented pattern in ADHD where real or perceived rejection triggers an emotional response disproportionate to the trigger — arriving suddenly and, when internalized, capable of producing a full depressive-and-suicidal episode within minutes. Up to 70% of adults with ADHD report this kind of heightened rejection sensitivity. When internalized rather than externalized as anger, RSD can look identical to a rapid-cycling mood disorder.
Safety Planning
A written, personalized, step-by-step tool built before a crisis for use during one. The evidence-based standard for suicide risk management — works better than a verbal no-harm promise because it gives a person something concrete to follow when their own thinking is hardest to trust. The Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention is the most widely researched model. Adaptations exist for neurodivergent clients.
Scapegoat (Family Systems)
In narcissistic family systems, the family member designated to absorb blame, carry shame, and be identified as the source of the family's problems. The scapegoat role is structural — it serves a function for the system regardless of the individual's actual behavior. Often assigned to the family member who is most perceptive, most honest, or least willing to maintain the family's denial.
Shutdown (Autistic)
An involuntary response to sensory, emotional, or cognitive overload in which the nervous system withdraws inward — expressed as reduced speech, reduced movement, emotional flatness, or apparent unresponsiveness. The inward counterpart to a meltdown: same overload, different direction. Often misread as indifference, dissociation, or passive-aggression.
Smear Campaign
A coordinated effort by an abusive person to damage the reputation of a target — typically by spreading distorted or fabricated information to mutual contacts, family, colleagues, or online communities. Often deployed when a target attempts to leave an abusive relationship or discloses the abuse. Therapists are ethically prohibited from publicly defending clients against smear campaigns, which can be disorienting for targets who expect professional allies to speak up.
Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention
The most widely researched safety planning model, developed by Barbara Stanley and Gregory Brown. A structured, collaborative tool built with the client before a crisis, covering: warning signs, internal coping strategies, social contacts for distraction, people to ask for help, professional contacts, and means restriction. Adapted for neurodivergent clients by modifying the social and communication steps.
Terror Management Theory (TMT)
A psychological theory built on Ernest Becker's work (The Denial of Death, 1973) and empirically developed by Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon. TMT holds that much of human culture and behavior is organized around managing death-anxiety — through distraction, worldview investment, self-esteem maintenance, and deferral of mortality out of conscious awareness. Applied to neurodivergent populations: autistic and ADHD people who discuss death calmly and directly may be misread as in crisis, when they are actually engaging in accurate perception that neurotypical culture has organized itself to avoid.
Thwarted Belongingness
One of two psychological states required for suicidal desire in the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide — the felt sense of 'I am alone,' of not belonging to any group or being genuinely connected to any person. Must co-occur with perceived burdensomeness for suicidal desire to develop. In autistic populations, research has found that camouflaging — specifically the assimilation subtype — is a primary driver of thwarted belongingness.
WPATH SOC8 (Standards of Care, Version 8)
The eighth version of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care, published in 2022. The most current clinical guidelines for gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, surgery, and mental health support. Removed the requirement for a mental health letter for many procedures and introduced new chapters on non-binary people, eunuchs, and intersex people.