need help reading my psych records

1) "she is not responding to internal stimuli"

- does it mean that I am not hearing voices? or what?

It has been mentioned consistently in the notes for each of my visit for the past 16 months.

2) "her speech is spontaneous, at conversational rate and volume; not pressured"

is pressured speech the kind of think a manic patient would display?

3) "her TP is linear" - does TP stand for thought process?

linear seems to be a good thing - right? Does it mean that each sentence flows logically from the previous one? or what?

4) "her mood is euthymic with full and congruent affect"

does it mean that the facial expressions are consistent with the content of the speech?

5) Axis II: dependent traits, no mention of self-defeating, even though we went over this in depth with the p-doc, and I indeed have dependent traits but not a full-blown dependent PD, but also, at least in the past, had a full-blown self-defeating PD. Do they not mention it because self-defeating PD is not in the current DSM? We went over each bullet...

6) "making strong eye contact" on some visits, which seems fine, and

"she sits mostly still with slightly wide eyed stare making strong eye contact"

this "wide eyed stare" happened on several visits with two different p-docs. What does it mean?

7) "her mood is euthymic with constricted and congruent affect"

What is constricted affect? How is it different from "full affect" in item 4 above?

8) in the past - "her TP is circumstantial"

what exactly does it mean and how is it different from "tangential" thought process?

9) "denies AH/VH" - what are those?

10) "thought process - goal directed"

How is different from "linear TP" in item 3 above? "goal directed" was used by one p-doc, and "linear" by another p-doc.

11) "mood "good" affect - appropriately reactive"

What does that mean? reactive to what - the p-doc's words?

Thanks!

The best person to explain this to you would be your psych. They wrote it and they will understand what it means. So ask them. Sorry I am not much help.

Sorry - I should have said it. the p-doc has left the clinic, I do not know the new p-doc, I won't see her until Sept, and I need to know by this Friday.

Hamster, do you have a decent sized hospital near you that would have a medical library?
Only ask cause their librarians could possibly help you at least look up some terminology, but probably not how they were used specifically in your report.
That might not be ethical.
Don't know if this helps but hang in there.

I do! I very much do - I have Stanford hospital in the area and they have a two story medical library with lots of staff (I was hospitalized there so I know). I will look up the hours for tomorrow...

Thank you - this is obviously my best bet. The web is not helpful because I am seeing Yahoo Answers and that kind of stuff which is all opinions of lay people, so I do not know whether to trust them.

"Denies ah / vh . I'm guessing auditory and visual hallucinations?

Here is my attempt:

Do you have a history of hearing voices? If you don't the statement may refer to you "ignoring" body sensations (related to emotions) and/or what is preoccupying your mind. Think of it as your body and mind trying to let you know something is emotionally wrong.

This verbose statement refers to normal and flowing speech.

The (entire) expression of your affect is appropriate.

Your affect is appropriate but not very expressive.

Linear thinking is sequential with one starting point and proceeds in one direction (1 dimensional). Non-linear (global) thinking has multiple starting points that expand out in different directions (3 dimensional).

great! thanks

thank you and it makes sense!

I'm going to take a stab at this. Am inserting my comments into your post....

I hope this is some help. Reading this reminds my why our agency does not allow the use of abbreviations.

here in NY these things would be...

1. internal stimuli is when your internal systems activate.....when your stomach lets you know you are hungry, when your hypothalamus lets you know you are too hot or too cold, .....not reacting to your internal stimuli would be things like not eating when your body lets you know you are hungry, not putting on more clothing items or blanket when cold, not making yourself more comfortable when your body sweats/over heats.....

here things like hearing voices and reacting to them is called hallucinations, psychosis, and other symptom names.

2. speech.....

spontaious means the person isnt having any trouble speaking, they are very willing to discuss any thing that comes up. example.....talking with my therapist I have no problem talking about my problems or other subject matter with her.

pressured means talking in a way that reveals you are censoring what you are talking about, being hesitant to disclose any thing, short agreeable answers but not very comfortable when talking about your problems. like you are answering only because you feel you have to. example....when I first started talking with my therapist i would answer her questions with short simple yes or no and be very slow in giving the answers, .....yes, um that happens I guess, maybe I dont know, do you really need to know that? ok signing we just did it you know just did it.

manic speech is talking real fast, sometimes loud, and not able to always complete sentences, getting distracted...example when I would be manic I would be talking like....we went shopping, I saw this terrific dress that was white and green boy your plant is really growing isnt it all green and flowery my sugar bowl has flowers like that on it, wait I was talking about the dress wasnt I well its got spegetti strings......just talking real fast and jumping from one topic to the next.

3 TP stands for Transpersonal....means how you see yourself, your identity and how you relate to others and your environment.

linear means your thoughts are connected, spontaneous, follows a line of reasoning. yes its a good thing...

4 means you have a full range of emotions and you show them appropriately. you dont laugh when you are sad and you dont cry when you are happy. when you are sad you cry, are depressed what ever sad emotions you show, when you are happy you smile your voice reflects happiness...your feelings match what you show the world.

5 only the treatment provider you saw can tell you why they did not mention you being self defeating type personality.

6. this is what we here in NY call the deer in the headlights of an on coming vehicle look. only you know why your posture and facial expression showed this look.

7 your mood was normal but you had trouble showing them even though they matched what you were going through....only a half smile when happy, the waiting for the next shoe to drop type of feelings.

full affect is fully showing your emotions, feelings. lack of affect is showing no emotions, not able to feel your emotions appropriately. so you are right in the middle range.

8. how you see yourself and your identity is based on what situation you are in. you see your self one way in one situation and see yourself and identity another way in a different situation.

9. AH = Audio hallucinations VH = either visual Hallucinations or hearing voices depending upon context. which means you dont hear voices and you dont see things that are not real.

10. goal directed thoughts are when you are thinking about doing things with a goal to accomplish....

goal directed....the oven is dirty I think I will clean it today.
linear .... boy look at that oven it sure is dirty. it really needs to be cleaned.

11 means when you encounter something that makes you feel you react appropriately example when you feel sad you cry, when you feel happy you do things that reflect you are happy, when you are angry you react (speak, move, what ever actions you do ) with anger....

mind you this is just what those things would mean here where I am, the only way in which to know what they mean where you are is by asking your own treatment providers.

I see... I am afraid that I am more linear than goal-directed these days...

As in "Sure it needs to be cleaned - any takers?" rather than as in "OK, where are my cleaning supplies?"

Thank you so much for deciphering most of this. Makes total sense.

Thank you so much. Yes, I hate acronyms and abbreviations used by people who assume that everybody is in the know whilst I am often not .