Frequently asked questions

There is still no real explanation as to how obsessive-compulsive disorder develops. As with many mental illnesses, a genetic predisposition is one of the triggering factors. However, heredity alone is usually not enough to trigger the onset of the disorder.

Another factor could be a disease of the brain, particularly due to changes in metabolism. However, it is not clear whether these actually cause the disease or merely accompany it. However, it has been shown that they disappear after successful treatment. It is also assumed that psychological factors play a role in OCD. These include upbringing, traumatic childhood experiences, negative later life events and a personality predisposition.

From a medical standpoint, this is strongly contraindicated. Withdrawal means liberation of the body from the addictive drug. Depending on the addictive substance, withdrawal can have serious physical consequences. Withdrawal should therefore always take place under inpatient psychiatric supervision. It is easier to confront the disease outside the familiar environment which may be tightly connected to the addiction. Without supervision, the risk of failure is very high.

Binge eating is a mental disorder. This makes it difficult or downright impossible for affected individuals to control it without professional help. This is because the causes are multifactorial. Examples of causative factors include familial eating behaviour, familial conflicts, low self-esteem, a high body-mass index (BMI), or depression.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has proved effective. The goals are to normalise the eating behaviour, to strengthen self-acceptance, and to recognise the triggers for binge episodes and find ways to deal with them.

For people suffering from sexual dysfunction, it is particularly important to talk openly about the problem. Sexuality is still a taboo subject that is not discussed for many people. Openness can help if the dysfunction leads to problems in the partnership or if problems in the partnership are responsible for the dysfunction.

Successful treatment starts with the insight that you have an addiction disease. Even if this confession is painful and possibly shameful, it puts you in a position to act and face your disease.

Withdrawal, which broadly means the elimination of the toxic substance from the body, is followed by recovery. During mental recovery, the issue is to rebuild your life without the addictive drug. Several protective factors can support you: a positive way to deal with stress and problems, a supportive social milieu, the opportunity to shape your own life, a positive self-image, and high resilience.

Participation in self-help groups can also be beneficial. You can meet people with similar experience and feel that they understand you. You can find more on the topic self-help here.

It is important for those affected to become aware of the disease, to accept it and to face it. The tendency to avoid fear-causing things or situations can add to anxiety or phobias. Facing these fears can be understood as training that helps to reduce the anxiety itself. For many of those affected, however, this is a particularly daunting challenge.

Anyone seeking medical attention for fears or phobias is not revealing personal weakness, but rather a desirable way of dealing with the disease. This also includes involving one's own environment, such as family or friends. Valuable support can come from those close to them.. In addition, the visit of self-help groups for exchanges with other sufferers shows good results for some sufferers.

Relaxation techniques such as yoga, autogenous training or progressive muscle relaxation can also be helpful for therapy. Exercise is generally recommended, especially endurance sports such as running or cycling.

Treatment success depends on your participation. It is of critical importance to admit that you are ill. This insight is difficult, especially since an eating disorder produces shame, guilt feelings, secrecy, or self-control. Use the professional help that you receive as part of your treatment to deal in a candid way with your problems, including those that are not obviously connected with the disease.

As part of the treatment, you will learn a new approach to eating. You should support this process. The path to normal eating behaviour includes eating regularly and in an alert state of mind, recognising satiety, and relishing your food. Interaction with other affected individuals is also helpful.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is treated psychotherapeutically with cognitive behavioral therapy in combination with medication. Cognitive behavioural therapy helps those affected to recognize the thought patterns that cause compulsive behaviour. It also aims to change these thought patterns. Behavioral therapy, on the other hand, attempts to treat those affected by directly confronting their compulsions.

Starting therapy at an early stage ensures that the restrictions associated with the illness are prevented. However, OCD can also be treated very successfully after a long period of illness. It can be helpful for the treatment to involve family or friends.

Fears and phobias are serious mental illnesses that require professional help and treatment. The many different factors that can lead to a disease make it difficult for patients to identify the causes alone and to take effective countermeasures.

Among the different treatment methods, behavioural therapy has proved to be particularly promising. This can be supplemented by the administration of drugs, depending on the severity of the disease. A deep-psychological therapy, which is carried out by psychotherapists or psychiatrists, may also be appropriate in some patients.

In addition to professional treatment, regular exercise, exercise and a fundamentally healthy lifestyle have proved to be helpful. Relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises, yoga, autogenic training or progressive muscle relaxation are equally beneficial.

Depending on the cause diagnosed, sexual dysfunction can be treated with drugs. But there are other good options. If there is a mental disorder, for example due to traumatic experiences, psychotherapeutics with individual therapy is possible. If the cause of sexual dysfunction is not due to physical or mental illness, sexual therapy, behavioural therapy, or couples therapy may be indicated.

Psychosocial treatment approaches have proven to be more effective than the use of drugs. They can be used to treat physical and psychological causes of the dysfunction. For beyond the restoration of sexual functions, it can be helpful to broaden the understanding of sexuality and also to enable other forms of physical communication. Since medications are also a possible cause of sexual dysfunction, changing medications or adjusting doses can help after consultation with your doctor.

Intellectual disabilities accompany those affected throughout their lives. Depending on their severity and characteristics, there are therapeutic measures that can improve their quality of life:

• Occupational therapy with regard to individual performance levels
• Sports and exercise therapy
• Physiotherapy exercises
• Social-therapeutic care, including the social environment
• Cognitive training depending on the extent of the loss of intelligence
• Supporting psychological conversations, provided that cognitive performance and communication skills are sufficient for this
• Stress tests in the current or new environment, including work tests in a workshop for disabled people
• Psychopharmacotherapy for pronounced behavioural abnormalities or accompanying mental disorders such as depressive syndromes

In the case of a loss of intelligence, the disorders of the brain are irreparable, so that it cannot be cured. Targeted training and training tailored to the individual needs of those affected can help to improve cognitive performance. These lead to an increase in the general mental abilities as well as stability of the acquired knowledge. Normal intelligence cannot be achieved despite these efforts.

The aim of therapy is to improve the existing skills as much as possible so that daily tasks can be partially or almost completely taken over by the person concerned.

Although psychotherapy is considered to be the first choice in the treatment of anxiety disorders, in some cases medications can also be used. This is especially true if the affected persons are so severely impaired that psychotherapy in the first step is not possible or psychotherapy has not shown the desired success. In general, antidepressants are used to reduce anxiety and phobias, and to improve the mood of those affected relatively quickly. Benzodiazepines, also known as sedatives, offer another possibility. They can quickly resolve anxiety, but they are not a permanent solution and do not cure anxiety disorder. Medications are only given as part of a treatment and should never be taken without medical supervision.

Sleeping pills, even plant-based, should never be taken without medical supervision or for a long time. The danger of becoming dependent is very high. Doctors prescribe sleeping pills in most cases only as a short-term temporary solution. In healthy people, the natural sleep-wakefulness cycle regulates itself without outside help. That is why the most important goal in the management of sleep disturbances is to find the cause and correct it.

Alcohol withdrawal can have both physical and mental symptoms. The most common physical symptoms include shaking, sweating, restlessness, nausea, headache, sleep disturbance, high blood pressure, and seizures.

A particularly severe form is delirium tremens. This condition manifests itself through short-term memory impairment, respiratory problems, and heart and circulatory symptoms. Altered consciousness is a life-threatening complication which can progress to coma. This can develop when alcohol is discontinued abruptly after prolonged regular use.

Mental withdrawal symptoms can include depressive mood, anxiety state, concentration problems, mood swings, and aggressiveness.

Alcohol withdrawal should always take place under medical supervision.

The boundary between temporary changes or limitations on sexuality and sexual dysfunction cannot always be clearly defined. Since sexuality is complex and the body and psyche are equally involved, many influences can have a short-term negative effect on sexual life. Occasional periods of unhappiness or orgasm difficulties are normal and occur in many people.

A central feature of a sexual dysfunction is that the symptoms persist for at least half a year. They also can cause distress: Sexuality, as you know it and like it, can no longer be interpreted satisfactorily. This leads to problems in partnership, to psychological effects and to a generally stressful life.