Glossary

eating disorder

Very unusual patterns of eating and exercising that severely interfere with a person’s everyday life. This can include eating extremely small amounts of food or eating in an uncontrolled way. The person may also be very distressed, anxious or worried about food, body weight and appearance. The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.

ECT

Electroconvulsive therapy. A medical treatment for severe depression, mania and schizophrenia. It involves a small electrical current being carefully passed through the brain.

EMDR

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing. A type of psychological treatment. During EMDR, your therapist will ask you to do a series of eye movements (moving eyes from side to side). At the same time, you focus on a disturbing memory.

exercise physiologist

A health professional who prescribes and provides exercise programs to help people with mental illness.

exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP)

A psychological treatment used for people with OCD. In ERP, you begin by making a list of activities that make you anxious. You order them on a scale, from easiest to most difficult. Then, starting at the easiest activity, you go ahead and do it, with the help of your therapist.