How to treat kleptomania? All of us from childhood know that someone else can not be taken, and theft is one of the gravest sins. This act can not be justified. But for some people an exception is made. These are kleptomaniacs.


What is kleptomania?

This is a mental disorder in which a person steals completely unnecessary items. Kleptomania has an obsessive, completely impulsive character. A person is constantly showing interest in other people's things, and absolutely unhealthy. This prevents him from living normally. This is why a very serious therapy is needed, based on the necessary medications. The desire to take someone else's is far from stable. It can intensify, and may weaken. Preferences for those suffering from kleptomania may also be different. There are those who prefer to steal just something sweet. Others like such things that shine. Kleptomania is an unbridled passion, pushing people into completely incomprehensible acts. The thief does not even intimidate the fact that he can be exposed. Often, this disease affects people after 50 years, as well as adolescents. This pathology is quite rare in younger schoolchildren.

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Why does kleptomania appear?

Doctors have not yet been able to find out what the causes of this disease are. Very often, specialists can not at all determine the cause of this ailment. But many rightly believe that this pathology originates directly in the very head of each person, as there is a shortage of neurotransmitters - a special substance that helps to form serotonin. And he is the direct source of stability of emotions.

When serotonin is not enough, and therefore a positive attitude is extremely small, the kleptomaniac tries to make up for this deficiency by stealing, as this action is extremely risky and simultaneously exciting. This behavior of an antisocial character allows the dopamine to be released, another mediator, as well as for pleasant emotions. A person steals again and again to experience these emotions.

Also kleptomania develops because:

  1. There may be heredity of
  2. There are medications that affect the human psyche or drugs
  3. There were traumas of the craniocerebral type.
  4. Most of the kleptomaniacs, more than 50%, are women.

What are the symptoms of kleptomania?

  1. They constantly want a completely useless and absolutely useless thing to steal.
  2. In this case, the pulse rate is much faster, and the heart is ready to jump out, before the theft itself there is a sweet tension.
  3. During theft itself, a person feels euphoria and true satisfaction.
  4. After a complete theft, he feels completely disgusted and completely disappointed.

A person does not have any personal or selfish interests at a time when he commits theft. He takes a stranger just like that. This distinguishes the kleptomaniac from the most common thief. It is very important that this mania is cyclical. A person knows what he is doing wrong, but with every new opportunity he again steals. Theft can occur in large supermarkets, and small stores, and visiting someone. With those items that are stolen, the kleptomaniac will never use it. Stolen things they give to friends or trite put through this or that time to the place.

Portrait of the kleptomaniac

If a person steals in order to cash in, then his conscience does not torment him later. He is nervous and worried only when he steals. The Kleptoman behaves differently. The process of stealing gives him joy, but after that, his conscience torments him.

If a person has such a deviation of the psyche, then he estimates himself extremely low. Usually he is an introvert who likes to be alone. In everyday life he is very nice and really decent person. But he can not steal without theft, since it is in theft that he finds true consolation and a kind of bonus.

Kleptomania only brings disappointment and stress to a person. He feels his guilt and is in constant depression. The patient is constantly afraid of something, does not sleep well, is subject to panic attacks, and in an intimate life he also has problems. Fantasies of a sexual nature serve as a fetish. Sexual act kleptomanu replaces the theft of women's shoes or underwear.

If the kleptomaniac already has a solid record of service, he does not steal all the time. After the theft, he still experiences emotions for a while, which he felt in the process of stealing himself. The remission of this pathology is divided into three types:

  • thefts are episodic, and there is a lot of time between them;
  • thefts are long-lasting, and there is a lot of time between them;
  • theft is chronic, and the periods between the thefts are very short

How to diagnose this pathology

To identify kleptomania, you need to rely on a number of criteria:

  • the patient can not resist the irresistible desire to take someone else's;
  • voltage before the theft;
  • a lot of positive emotions during theft;
  • , there is simply no reason to steal any serious nature. A person takes someone else's not because he does not have money, not because he takes revenge, and not under the influence of narcotic substances.
  • theft is not provoked by these or other psychological disorders.

How to treat kleptomania

Most kleptomaniacs are very shy that they steal, but they do not want to go to the doctor. But this pathology can not simply pass this way, and complications are possible with all sorts of violations of the accompanying nature. Treat this ailment with special medications, as well as psychotherapy.

In clinics of a prestigious level, classes are often held when patients support and help each other, and an experienced specialist leads it. It is communication that helps the adoption of this problem, as well as the identification of those ways that are possible to solve it.

As far as medicines are concerned, various drugs are used:

  • Firstly, these are antidepressants.
  • Secondly, drugs with lithium, which help improve mood and stabilize a person's psychological state.
  • Thirdly, preparations from seizures. They help to block seizures, and also suppress the very desire to steal.
  • Fourthly, these are drugs that are designed to eliminate this dependence. It is important that the treatment is lengthy. It takes considerable time to select the required dose.

If the kleptomania is treated correctly, then it is possible to gradually recover even those people whose theft experience is quite impressive.

Dangers of kleptomania

Kleptomania has unpleasant complications:

  1. can be put in prison;
  2. appearance of depression;
  3. dependence on alcohol and drugs;
  4. the desire to play in these or other games of a gambling nature, as well as shopping.
  5. solitude of a voluntary nature;
  6. possible attempts to settle accounts with life.

What to do if you have a kleptomaniac

in your family. You need to talk in the right tone. It is important to convince the patient that he needs the help of a specialist. How can we properly talk?

  1. It's worth telling how much you care about a person, that you are worried about him.
  2. It is necessary to draw a vivid picture of what life awaits the kleptomaniac in the near future. He can be arrested, severely sentenced and imprisoned for a long time. He can also remain without work.
  3. It is important to tell a person that you are fully aware of why it behaves this way. The whole cause of the ailment, which creates a hindrance so that you can resist theft.
  4. It is worth to assure a person that experts with good experience will help him to make sure he is on the right path.

If you have real suspicions that your loved one is suffering from kleptomania, but you can not really talk to him about it seriously, you first need to consult an expert. He will provide active help in choosing the right tactics of how to communicate with such a patient, and will also advise how you can really help a loved one who suffers from this dangerous ailment.