Grief & suicide terms, words and phrases are often used by crisis counselors and others in
the health-care field. You can study these and/or copy them to your dictionary.
| Abandonment |
Unilateral discontinuation of patient relationship and treatment
by a clinician. |
| Abnormal grief |
Prolonged, difficult, complicated response associated with
traumatic loss. See unresolved grief. |
| Abnormal grief reaction |
Individual behavioral and/or emotional condition caused by
a severe loss. |
| Abuser |
Individual that engages in substance abuse. |
| Access |
Capability of an individual or group to receive needed services. |
| Accessibility |
Proximity to lethal means by a suicidal individual. |
| Active euthanasia |
See direct euthanasia. |
| Active intervention |
Activities that involve a change of behavior by an at-risk
individual. |
| Active listening |
Hotline intervention technique to reaffirm what caller says
he/she feels. |
| Active suicidal ideation |
State of acute thought of completing suicide associated with
imminent risk (Sivak et al.) |
| acute |
Sharp, sudden, severe or short-term (e.g., acute grief). |
| Acute mourning |
Initial phase of disorientation, dulled senses, denial, yearning. |
| Acute psychiatric crisis |
Individual that is suicidal, psychotic, or experiencing other
severe trauma. |
| Acute stress reaction |
Individual response to traumatic external event lasting 3
months or less. |
| Acute suicide threat |
Individual has lethal means and voices intent. |
| Adjunctive therapy |
Occupational, recreational, creative therapies used with other
treatments or alone. |
| Adolescent suicide |
Completion of suicide by a youth between ages 11-18. |
Adolescent suicide
syndrome |
Characterized by impulsiveness, reactive, aggression towards
self, social loss. |
| Adult suicide |
Completion of suicide by an individual between ages 19-64. |
| Adverse event |
Unforeseen or unexpected and undesired outcome of medical
treatment. |
| Affect |
Psychological state, e.g., feeling, mood, demeanor, or emotion. |
| Affective education |
School program to help students better understand their feelings
and recognize risk. |
| Aftercare |
Post-loss support services to the bereaved or other traumatized
individuals. See post-vention. |
Age-correspondence
reaction |
Acute grief triggered by age similarity to lost loved one. |
| Age-specific |
Suicide rate broken down by age groupings (see Cohort). |
| Agenerative suicide |
Caused by personal alienation (Shneidman). |
| Agitation |
Extreme restlessness common in individuals in suicidal crisis
(see psychomotor agitation). |
| Alcohol myopia |
Effect of alcohol on thought processes that may be associated
with a propensity to suicide (Rogers). |
| Alienation |
Feeling of being apart from or unattached to others. |
| Alliance for safety |
Joint plan between clinician and client with shared goal to
prevent suicide (Gutheil). |
| Altruistic suicide |
Suicide as self-sacrifice (Durkheim). |
| Ambiguous grief |
Occurs when loss is psychologically felt but not physically
confirmed. |
| Ambivalence |
Suicidal individual's wish to both live and die. |
| Ambivalent attempt |
Attempted suicide involving nonlethal means and felt to not
be intended to result in death. |
| Amputation metaphor |
Loss analogy commonly used by grieving parents (e.g., loss
of child like loss of limb). |
| Anaclitic depression |
Depressive disorder caused by loss of parent or other dependent
relationship. |
| Analgesia |
The process and outcome of relieving or reducing pain. |
| Analgesic |
Medication that controls or reduces pain. |
| Anatomy of melancholy |
Text by Robert Burton (1577-1640) giving first modern interpretation
of suicide. |
| Anhedonia |
Inability to experience pleasure; a traumatic loss reaction. |
| Anniversary reaction |
Worsening or return of grieving on dates related to the loss. |
| Anniversary trigger |
Idea that people tend to die near key dates in their lives. |
| Anomic suicide |
Type caused by a disrupted relationship (Durkheim). |
| Anticipatory grief |
Grief in expectation of a terminally ill loved one's death
(Lindemann). |
| Antidepressants |
Psychotropic medications used to treat depression. |
| Anti-Suicide Bureau |
First "crisis center" established by The Salvation Army in
1906. |
| Anti-suicide contract |
See no suicide contract and alliance for safety. |
| Anxiolytics |
Medications that reduce anxiety. |
| Appropriate death |
Terminally ill individual's chosen manner of dying. |
| Assisted suicide |
Completion of suicide by a terminally ill or suffering individual
with the aid of a physician or other clinician. |
| Assumptive world |
Griever's personal values and beliefs undermined or disrupted
by her/his loss. |
| Asymptomatic |
Without symptoms or signs of disease or disorder. |
| Attempted suicide |
Unsuccessful, potentially lethal effort to complete suicide. |
| At-risk |
Subject to the possibility of suicide, or other harmful outcomes. |
| Autocide |
Use of a motor vehicle to complete suicide. |
| Auto-euthanasia |
Euphemism for suicide involving a suffering individual. |
| Autonomy |
Ethical principle of individual self-determination. |
| Autopsy |
Examination of a body to determine the cause of death and
other medical information. |
| Availability |
Presence of a resource (e.g., support group) that may be needed
by an individual or group. |
| Availability of means |
Accessibility to lethal means by a suicidal individual. |
