Therapy spectrum

The Fliedner Klinik Berlin offers 30 treatment places with individually-tailored innovative therapy concepts. We treat the following disorders:

• Depression
• Anxiety disorders (also social phobia and panic attacs)
• Eating disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Burn-out-syndrome 
• Adaptation disorder, failure and exhaustion states
• Chronic pain syndrome 
• Addiction disorders 
• Personality disorders
• Psychotic episodes
• Memory disorders

Depression

Depression is one of the most frequent psychological disorders. People suffering from depression feel deep sadness, lack of energy and pointlessness. Things which used to give them pleasure no longer do so. They suffer from a tendency go brood as well as from concentration disorders, and often have the feeling that they no longer can remember anything. On the physical level, many report suffering from disturbed sleep, lack of appetite and the most diverse "complaints" and pains. There are a series of well investigated therapy options to treat depression.

Anxiety disorders

With anxiety disorders, the affected person is tormented by the feeling of fear which he no longer knows how to overcome. For panic disorders, he affected person is overcome by sudden and completely unexpected panicky fear of dying, of going crazy or losing control. For so-called agoraphobia, it is impossible for the affected person to visit public places or locations such as department stores and marketplaces, to travel by bus or car or use elevators, plagued by the fear that he will not be able to "flee".
With social anxieties most importantly there is the fear of doing something distressing or disagreeable in public for which one must feel ashamed. Therefore contact with other individuals is frequently avoided.
However, cases of rather diffuse anxiety and fear that something could happen to one's close relatives, or that life as such has become negative, we speak of a generalised anxiety disorder.

Eating disorders

There are various forms of well-known eating disorders. With anorexia nervosa the affected person (in the most cases they are female) fears that she is too fat. They control and curb their eating behaviour and increasingly do sport in order to lose weight. This can lead to life-threatening situations.
With bulimia nervosa the most affected likewise fear being too fat and therefore begin with diets. But then the increasingly ravenous appetite leads to so-called "eating attacks", and they attempt to combat the consequences (undesired weight gain) by vomiting or cathartics.
With adipositas, the affected person suffers from very massive overweight and consumes large quantities of food.

Obsessive-compulsive disorders

This means thoughts, impulsive acts and activities which impose themselves upon people and against which the patient defends himself in vain. Even though he feels they are irrational, he cannot refrain from doing them, because he otherwise suffers from very negative feelings. Often these compulsions take a long time to act out and can become very obstructive to normal life routines. Or they bring the affected person to entirely refrain from activities in order to avoid the occurrence of obsessions. Examples: washing obsession, control obsession, the idea of dirtying oneself or the strong impulse to do certain proscribed things.
 

Post-traumatic stress disorder

A post-traumatic stress disorder usually ensues when something happens to an individual which is outside the normal human experience, such as for example sexual violence, violent experiences in war or crimes, holdups or injuries from natural catastrophes. Those afflicted cannot erase the constant images of these events, which influence the atmosphere and disturb sleep and place heavy burdens on the person. Those suffering are greatly disturbed by everything that reminds them even only slightly of the calamity. Simply to "forget" it, like many relatives or friends advise, does not succeed and the affected person additionally feels that he himself is to blame.

Burn-out-syndrome

"Those who burn out must once have burned " Ð Many individuals tend to make excessive demands on themselves, especially in respect to their profession. Own needs, even one's own social life and partnership are neglected in favour of a life of high professional commitment. Exhaustion then sets in after some time, which can appear in the form of chronic tiredness, concentration disorders, disturbed sleep or physical symptoms. The formerly high commitment is transferred into an increased withdrawal from professional responsibilities, but also from private contacts. Positive mindsets are increasingly replaced by negative ones. The negative feelings turn against the patient himself and then lead to depression or show up as aggression and reproaches against others. The patient feels empty, indifferent, "burnt out".
 

Adaptation disorders, failure and states of exhaustion:

Emotional disorders and usually depressive mood swings, which occur as a reaction to unfavourable life circumstances that continue longer.

Psychosomatic and somatopsychic disorders:

Psychosomatic and somatoform psychological disorders are disorders in which psychic factors affect the origin and state of a physical illness. This includes disorders of the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. irritable colon, hyperacidity of the stomach), disorders of the immune system (e.g. allergies), disorders of the skin (e.g. psoriasis) and much more. Furthermore, the somatoforms disorders also fall into this category, where sufferers report many physical problems which time and again are not recognised by doctors or are diagnosed as non-existent. Nevertheless those effected feel the symptoms strongly. A special variant of these somatoform disorders is the somatoform pain disorder, in which those affected have sustained or repeating conditions of pain which cannot be explained by the physical clinical picture.

Addiction disorders

Addiction disorders are very common. There is a significant difference between substance abuse and dependency. In the case of substance abuse, the psychic or physical damage of those affected is in the foreground. In the case of dependency, there is the significant strong, compelling desire to consume a substance. Beginning, end and quantity of consumption can increasingly not be controlled. Increasingly larger quantities must be consumed in order to achieve a constant effect. If the consumption is discontinued, it leads to physical withdrawal symptoms. The addiction behaviour and its consequences claim so much time that other interests and obligations are increasingly neglected. Despite the physical and secondary social damages, consumption continues.
For many addicted people it is eminently difficult to admit their illness to themselves. Often this illness is primarily brought in connection with personal failure, even though neurobiological basics are long since well known. Accordingly great is the connected sense of blame and shame, and it is difficult to seek help and to handle relapses. Often the addiction behaviour has also already continued over a long period of time and the problems have not been actively addressed. This then requires abstinence all the more distinctly and urgently, and increases the danger of a relapse. Apart from the achievement of abstinence and dealing with relapses, the targeted development of solutions for problems in daily life routine is also an essential part of the therapy. 

Personality disorders

Sustained patterns of behaviour accompanied by personal suffering and disturbed social functional capability. The transitions to the normal state are fluid, but the "suffering" is often considerable.

Psychotic episodes

Conditions which accompany the disorganisation of thought processes, delusions or hallucinations (positive symptoms) and/or lack of drive, apathy and joylessness (negative symptoms). In the recovery phase of psychotic episodes, the day clinic treatment is the best path to a partial or complete healing.

Disturbances of memory

Recent research has shown how different the causes for disturbances of memory can be and therefore how various the therapeutic approach possibilities are. In general, the therapeutic possibilities to influence memory disturbances by training procedures and drug treatment have significantly improved