Hi, I'm Dr. Tracey Marks,
a psychiatrist and I make mental health education videos.
Today, I'm answering a viewer question
about kleptomania.
Patrice asks,
"Dr. Marks, can you please make a video on kleptomania.
"My husband just found out
"I've been taking things for years
"and he said he feels like he's married
"to a criminal.
"He doesn't understand why I take things
"when we have the money to buy them.
"He thinks I'm lying when I say I can't help it.
"He makes me feel like a disgusting person."
Thanks Patrice for your question.
And I'm sorry this condition leaves you
feeling this way about yourself.
Kleptomania is an impulse control disorder.
Let's look at how it's defined using
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Fifth Edition.
Here's the criteria.
There are five things and you need all five.
Recurrent failure to resist impulses
to steal objects that are not needed
for personal use or for their monetary value.
This is one of the main things that distinguishes it
from ordinary stealing or shoplifting.
Shoplifting is usually planned
or it can be impulsive,
but the items are taken for some benefit
to the person like they need them,
or a teenager may do it to be part
of a group.
But with kleptomania,
it's like mindless acquisition of objects.
The second thing
is an increasing sense of tension
immediately before committing the theft.
And this is a common characteristic
of the impulse control behaviors
and the compulsive disorders
like obsessive compulsive disorder.
You can feel very tense just before taking the object
or performing the compulsion in the case of OCD.
And then you experience number three,
which is, pleasure, gratification or relief
at the time of committing the theft.
So it's like this tension builds up
and you have to take the item.
And the act of taking the item releases the tension.
Number four is
the stealing is not committed to express anger or vengeance
and is not in response to a delusion or hallucination.
And this goes back to the mindless taking.
There's usually not a motivation behind it.
Number five,
the stealing is not better explained by a conduct disorder,
a manic episode or antisocial personality disorder.
And this brings me to a point that I wanna make
about this and that
even though it has mania in the name,
it's not related to bipolar disorder at all.
It's not something that people do
because they're in a manic state.
And there are other disorders
that have mania in the name like pyromania,
which is compulsive fire setting.
And trichotillomania,
which is compulsive hair-pulling.
Another couple of points that Patrice touches on
in her question is
because the person often takes small objects
as opposed to filling up a backpack with stuff,
they can avoid detection
and the behavior can go unnoticed for a long time.
Typically, they won't admit it to anyone,
even people close to them.
So in Patrice's case,
she was married for what sounds like years
before her husband realized
she had been taking these things.
Another thing people will do
is return the items or give them away.
And there's usually a lot of remorse
or self-loathing associated with taking the items afterwards
that leaves people to wanna get rid of them.
Patrice even said in her question that
the things that her husbands said
makes her feel like a disgusting person.
Well, she probably already felt that way anyway
about herself
and his comments just made it even worse.
So in response to this feeling bad about taking these items,
people may anonymously return them
or give them a way to people who can use them.
This disorder isn't studied much
because it's usually not that common
in the general population
and people don't seek help usually
unless they're faced with negative consequences
like a spouse threatening to leave
or facing legal troubles.
This disorder usually starts in the teenage years
to early adulthood.
Because it's not studied much,
we don't have treatment protocols for it.
Medication may help somewhat
and it's usually the mood stabilizers that we use
to treat other impulse control problems.
Some specialized cognitive behavior therapy
may also be helpful.
If the person develops other problems
like depression or anxiety,
the treatment that they get for the other problem
may also help their kleptomania.
It is the kind of condition that can come
and go over time
and people can have several episodes,
then have long periods of remission,
where they aren't very active.
So that's kleptomania.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.
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