Addiction & Mental Health Glossary

Alcohol-related liver damage (ARLD) is the umbrella term for the full spectrum of liver injury caused by chronic alcohol consumption. It moves through three clinical stages, each progressively harder to reverse. Abstinence or restricted drinking within low-risk limits can avoid ARLD, a leading cause of liver-related death globally.

Alcoholic hepatitis is acute inflammation of the liver triggered by prolonged, heavy alcohol consumption. It sits on a spectrum between early fatty liver disease and end-stage cirrhosis, and unlike fatty liver, which can reverse with abstinence. The condition can appear after years of steady drinking or flare suddenly after a period of especially intense use.

Borderline personality disorder is a psychiatric condition rooted in instability. Moods that crash and spike within hours, a self-image that fractures under pressure, relationships that flip between worship and rage, and impulses that override judgment before the person registers what they’re doing.

Cirrhosis is the end stage of chronic liver damage, the point at which so much healthy tissue has been replaced by scar tissue (fibrosis) that the organ loses its ability to filter toxins, produce clotting proteins, and regulate metabolism. Alcohol is the second most common cause of cirrhosis.

Metabolic resistance (also called metabolic tolerance or pharmacokinetic tolerance) is the body’s adaptation to repeated drug exposure in which the liver ramps up its production of the enzymes responsible for breaking down that substance. As a result, the drug is cleared from the bloodstream faster with each use, and less of it reaches the brain.

Serotonin syndrome is a potentially life-threatening drug reaction triggered when serotonin accumulates to toxic levels in the central nervous system. It is the result of combining drugs that each raise serotonin levels through different pathways, pushing the total beyond the body’s capacity to regulate it.