Kleptomania: what is it and how to get rid of it?

Recently, the names of many psychiatric ailments have entered our habitual vocabulary and remain there. So it happened with "kleptomania" - a pathological craving for theft. Today, any recidivist thief is called a kleptomaniac, and this fact cannot but surprise, because true kleptomania is a rather rare mental illness.

Kleptomania is not a bad habit and not a challenge to society, not a strange fun, but a mental illness, the name of which comes from the ancient Greek words κλ? πτειν - "to steal", "theft" and μαν? α - "pathological attraction". The disease really exists, it is included in the ICD-10 under the code F63.2. This type of disorder is also often referred to as stealing mania. The French doctors were the first to guess that it was a disease, and it happened in 1816. And until the last century, their version was the main one: doctors all over the world recognized kleptomania as a painful urge to steal something as a manifestation of hysteria, dementia, brain damage or menstrual irregularities in women (and this relationship was seriously considered by the greatest scientists in the world and even found its reasonable!).

Modern doctors look at kleptomania as a manic state with impaired self-control. This means that the kleptomaniac cannot resist the obsessive desire to steal. There is also a scientific hypothesis that completely denies the presence of such a disease.Those who deny kleptomania in principle, argue that the disease was "invented" by humanity to justify the most common ordinary theft (patients can avoid prison).

Official medicine today has a different opinion. Kleptomania is referred to as a disorder of drives. It is often accompanied by other mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorder, eating disorders, and alcoholism. Kleptomaniacs are impulsive, they do not pursue any personal or other benefit with their actions. (This is supported by the fact that most often they steal things that they do not even know where to apply, unnecessary for them). Theft is done in order to simply get pleasure from the adrenaline rush (after all, the process of theft itself is closely related to a strong release of stress hormones).

There is not a single possibility to say how many kleptomaniacs live on the planet. Diagnosis of the disease is very difficult, patients do not go to doctors for fear of losing their social status and reputation. In Russia, psychiatrists see patients with such a diagnosis in isolated cases, in the USA - more often due to a different mentality. And American psychiatrists from the National Association claim that up to 7% of the country's inhabitants are latent or open kleptomaniacs. Their Canadian colleagues supplemented the data with a picture of the average portrait of a classic kleptomaniac: this is a woman aged 30 to 40 years. It is believed that kleptomania is not inherited, but this has not yet been proven.

The French monarch Henry of Navarre will forever remain in history as the most regal kleptomaniac. The richest man of his time could not resist the temptation to steal some trinket at a party. Realizing that he was not acting royally, then every time Henry always sent a messenger with a trinket back to the owners. Heinrich tried to ridicule his subordinates, explaining that he so easily manages to twist them around his finger.

American writer Neil Cassidy (one of the founders of the beat generation) suffered from kleptomania all his life, but it was "narrow-profile": the writer only stole cars. From 14 to 20 years old, he was able to steal about 500 cars. Kleptomania was not the only problem for the writer, he showed signs of various mental disorders, and he tried to ease his obsessive thoughts with drugs, psychoactive substances and an unbridled lifestyle.

Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan is a kleptomaniac, she was even sentenced for shoplifting. But even after working off the sentenced correctional hours, Lindsey was repeatedly seen in petty and large-scale theft. The same diagnosis was established along with oniomania (shopaholism), drug addiction and depression for the singer Britney Spears. She only stole lighters and wigs from sex shops.

Another Hollywood diva Winona Ryder was officially recognized by doctors as a kleptomaniac about 10 years ago. She steals clothing items from shops, for which she has already been punished by the police. But all is in vain. Winona also got into the crime chronicles later.

Like most manic attraction disorders, kleptomania has mysterious causes. Scientists and psychiatrists are still arguing about them. Nevertheless, it has been established for certain that in the overwhelming majority of cases, kleptomania goes hand in hand with other mental disorders, that is, it occurs in systemic combinations. It is believed that the morbid urge to commit theft manifests itself as a result of existing psychopathy or schizophrenia. Kleptomania differs from other manias in some characteristic features:

• kleptomaniacs more often than other patients suffer from eating disorders, nutrition;
• people with clinical kleptomania have a high propensity for depression;
• such patients, as a rule, have one or more phobias (pathological irrational fears).

Quite often, according to doctors, the occurrence of kleptomania is influenced by bad habits, especially alcoholism and drug addiction, as well as gambling addiction. Kleptomania can remain latent and latent for a long time. And the debut usually falls on situations in which a person has experienced prolonged stress. Psychiatrists tend to see this as a kind of subconscious desire to feel sorry for oneself, as they did in childhood: to reward oneself for the suffering and deprivation endured.

There are several hypotheses that may explain the causes of kleptomania and other manic conditions. In particular, it is believed that a disturbance in the balance of neurotransmitters (a small amount of produced serotonin, a high level of dopamine) can act as provoking factors. Wherein a person has a biological unconscious need for increased doses of adrenaline: committing theft is associated with anxiety and risk, and this gives him the opportunity to get adrenaline. Having committed theft, a person experiences satisfaction, euphoria, but then realizes what is perfect, and he is tormented by a feeling of shame. Gradually, stealing becomes a conditioned reflex connection that allows you to get pleasure that is not available in any other situation.

Psychiatrists distinguish a triad of symptoms, which are necessarily present in a true kleptomaniac:

• compulsion - the need to commit theft, which is guided by the previous obsessive thought about committing theft;
• getting a lot of pleasure during the commission of a crime and after it for some time;
• a strong feeling of guilt after a deed after a while, which plunges a person into an anxious and close to depression state.

And then everything is done in cycles. Depression and guilt cause a lack of serotonin, an increased level of dopamine, there is a strong need to increase adrenaline, but there is only one way to do this: go and steal something again. At this stage, a person who until recently promised himself never to do this again loses the opportunity to enjoy any other means: neither sex, nor tasty food, nor other joys of life give him the required amount of adrenaline. An obsessive idea of ​​theft appears. The person becomes anxious, restless, nervous. He is not happy with anything, he can start using alcohol and drugs just because this, at least temporarily at first, gives the illusion of liberation from painful attraction.

Reaching the highest point of tension, a person goes and commits theft. He never plans it, does not think over ways of escape, channels for selling the stolen goods - this does not interest him. He commits the theft on impulse. And immediately the heavy oppressive tension is replaced by the same great and joyful relief. The mood rises, the person is happy, he really feels good.

As soon as the adrenaline level begins to decrease (and this usually happens within 1-2 days), a feeling of guilt appears, sleep and appetite are disturbed, and everything starts all over again. Under the influence of an impulse that pushes the kleptomaniac to steal, he can commit theft almost anywhere: in a huge shopping center or in a small shop within walking distance, with relatives, friends or at the workplace.The most unusual cases of kleptomania described in the medical literature include a fact that made it into the Guinness Book of Records: a man stole a steamer by sneaking up to the dock and cutting down the anchorage.

It is noteworthy that a kleptomaniac can safely be entrusted with work related to responsibility for material values ​​(money, expensive equipment), because usually they do not take anything from the area of ​​responsibility, but pens, cups and other trifles will regularly disappear at work. There is a known case when the head coach of a football team, who has access to both the club's funds and material assets, stole from the office of a sports doctor just a centrifuge for blood tests. When asked by the police why he needed her, the kleptomaniac trainer could not give an intelligible answer. Later, psychiatrists recognized him as mentally ill.

At the stage of guilt, many kleptomaniacs can return the stolen goods themselves, toss them back in secret. Either they donate the stolen item to someone, or they throw it away. Getting rid of the stolen goods at any cost is important for them, since the thing is a reminder of the socially unacceptable act that they have committed.

The periods between cycles gradually decrease and episodes of theft become more frequent. With a persistent disorder that has existed for several years, complications begin in a person: anxiety increases, associated with a possible imminent collapse of his reputation. Most of the time he is in a bad mood, depressed. He sets boundaries himself and tries to isolate himself from society.

The likelihood of sleeping or becoming a drug addict increases, often there are suicidal impulses and ideas. But psychological consequences are not the only thing that can await a kleptomaniac. It is possible that you will receive a criminal record, financial difficulties due to the need to pay compensation by a court decision.

To diagnose the disease, use the list of signs described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It means that the person should show certain symptoms.

• Failure to overcome addiction over multiple episodes.
• Lack of benefit for the offender, and the items stolen by him should not be of benefit or value to him.
• Stealing is enjoyable and has nothing to do with revenge, hallucinations, or delusions. And also, a person should not have antisocial manias, organic brain damage and bipolar disorder (theft has nothing to do with kleptomania).

Diagnostics is carried out by specialist psychiatrists, and the diagnosis is made by a special commission. The task of the experts of this commission is not only to assess signs and symptoms, but also to identify possible simulation (sometimes it is much easier for a repeat offender-thief to go to the hospital for treatment than to prison for a long time, and therefore criminals often try to impersonate kleptomaniacs). There is a whole system of tests that allow you to establish the true motives, reasons for theft.

It is quite difficult to distinguish an ordinary thief from a kleptomaniac with the naked eye and without the basics of knowledge of the forms of deviant behavior. The main difference is the motive. A kleptomaniac is a sick person for whom there is no benefit in stealing. A thief goes to a crime deliberately, of his own free will or under the influence of certain life circumstances, he has the benefit of committing theft. The differences are actually more extensive.

• Planning for details of theft. The kleptomaniac, in addition to the lack of profit, never thinks in advance where, when and how the theft should take place. He obeys the impulse "I saw - I liked it - I took it." The thief thinks over the details, studies the store plan, knows the opening hours, the location of the CCTV cameras. He looks after what he needs in advance and thinks over ways to commit a crime and take out the stolen.
• The fate of the stolen. A kleptomaniac tries to throw away or donate stolen goods, a thief tries to sell it or exchange it for something of value (again we return to the question of material gain).
• Police arrest behavior. Kleptomaniacs are ashamed of their illness, and many of them are better off going to jail than letting everyone around them know that they have a mental illness. The thief will look for profit here too: he will declare himself a kleptomaniac voluntarily in the hope of avoiding prison punishment and will diligently feign illness.

In Russian practice, it is quite difficult to recognize even a real patient as a kleptomaniac. The thing is that the packaging of paper clips has its own cost, and it is almost unrealistic to convince the judges that for a person with high incomes this pack of paper clips does not represent any benefit. In the United States and European courts, the approach is different: they rely on the fact of sales. There was a sale, which means that the person is a thief, there was no sale (even if he had not yet had time to sell), which means he is a kleptomaniac.

It is difficult to make a social portrait of a thief: thieves are different. But for kleptomaniacs, according to the observations of psychiatrists, certain common features are characteristic:

• usually they are quite wealthy people who can definitely afford to buy what they have stolen without harming their wallet;
• mainly the disease is characteristic of women;
• kleptomaniacs are genuinely ashamed of what they have done;
• in everyday life, kleptomaniacs are usually quite law-abiding citizens.

Thus, the man sitting in front of you with tattoos, no specific activity and two convictions behind his back, claiming that he deliberately chose this store, grabbed gloves, left the car open at the entrance and took several gold items due to kleptomania - this is a simulator. And a frightened and embarrassed person who was caught in a petty and ridiculous shoplifting (took toothpicks, a glass holder), who claims that he stumbled and is ready to be punished, may well turn out to be a kleptomaniac. But he himself would never want to admit that he has a pathological bad habit-illness - it's better to go to jail.

Before planning treatment, you need to lure the kleptomaniac to a psychiatrist. And this is not an easy task. Shyness and a feeling of sincere remorse, which become habitual for a kleptomaniac, prevent him from honestly admitting to a specialist his attraction, to tell his experiences and emotions. But independent attempts to rectify the situation, to change usually have no effect, each time ending with a new attack and a new theft.

Therefore, usually it becomes known about the disease within the framework of the examination appointed by the court, when the patient has already been caught in a series of thefts. Quite rarely, relatives of kleptomaniacs turn to doctors, who, at the cost of incredible efforts, persuade patients to visit a specialist. Such cases are rare.

Kleptomania in adults, like many other disorders of attraction, is treated in a complex way: drug therapy is combined with psychotherapeutic correction programs. Of the drugs, antidepressant drugs are usually preferred. They help to increase the level of serotonin in the body, due to which the irrepressible need for adrenaline surges begins to decrease.

Psychotherapy is considered the most effective method. A long-term program or a short-term program can be chosen depending on the type and severity of the disorder. The task of the doctor is to identify negative experiences that could become the basis for kleptomania. Then the change of attitudes to the correct ones begins, behavioral therapy makes it possible to form new reactions to old traumatic situations. Group sessions with a psychotherapist have proven to be quite good.

Unfortunately, the forecasts for kleptomania are not very favorable. This disorder (like other impairment disorders) is very difficult to correct. If a person does not have the motivation to get rid of addiction, to fight, then neither psychotherapy nor drugs will be able to achieve the result - the desire to steal will return.

In children of preschool and school age, kleptomania can manifest itself at any time, and it will have its own specific causes and symptoms. Most often, systematic children's petty theft is a certain signal that an insurmountable problem has arisen in the emotional and psychological state of the child. It is by stealing that he is trying to draw the attention of society to her. There are problems that can make you want to steal.

• Competition for parental attention (a brother or sister was born in the family, the child began to receive less attention from mom and dad).
• Communicative distress. There are problems with communication in a team of peers. By committing a theft, a child shows his peers that he is brave, strong, smart, and therefore may well be not only a full member of the company, but also its leader.
• Curiosity. The child commits impulsive, spontaneous theft simply because the object seemed very interesting to him, attracted his attention.