Kleptomania- Impulse Control Disorder. Donald Scott. Psy-260-C01 Abnormal Psychology. March 11, Greg Bird. family number

Transcription

1 Kleptomania- Impulse Control Disorder Donald Scott Psy-260-C01 Abnormal Psychology March 11, 2013 Greg Bird family number

2 Impulsive Control Disorders- Kleptomania Kleptomania occurs when a person can not resist the urge to steal an object that is not actually needed. In the general population the percentage of people that are kleptomaniacs is actually fairly low. This psychiatric disorder is frequently accompanied with other mental problems such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or substance abuse (Grant, J.E., Odlaug, B.L., & Kim, S., 2010). Kleptomania was finally announced as a psychiatric disorder in 1980, however it has been discussed with medical issues for close to 200 years. With it only considered a disorder for the past 33 years there is only so much research that can be done on it. Kleptomania is a disorder that is classified under impulse control disorders. Kleptomania was historically known to include mainly white, upper, and uppermiddle class females (Kohn, 2006). There are obviously exceptions to the rich white women that are kleptomaniacs, but there is also very little research and males and anyone of a minority class. The main reason for this is that Kleptomania is viewed as a disorder for people that can afford to buy it, but instead of buying it they steal it. A person cannot be apart of the lower class group and be seen as a kleptomaniac. That is because kleptomania by definition says that the person is taking something that is not needed. Where as if a person is in the lower class of people then they would be stealing something that they just can t afford. That means that it is a higher chance that the person is stealing something that they need, which puts them in the class of a shoplifter. In order for a person to truly be a Kleptomaniac they have to suffer from four specific things. Those four things include: 1) recurrent failure to resist an impulse to steal unneeded objects, 2) an increasing sense of tension before committing the theft,

3 3) an experience of pleasure, gratification, or release at the time of committing the theft, and 4) the stealing is not performed out of anger, vengeance, or due to psychosis (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). Kleptomania is seen as being associated with people who live a poor quality of life and impaired functioning. This is from the patients that have been diagnosed with kleptomania and substance abuse (alcohol and/or drugs) because of this everyone thinks that when people preform a theft they are impaired and can t control their decisions. When in fact most of the time they aren t impaired, but they commit the crime for the feeling that they will receive. They don t realize what exactly they are doing because they are so hooked on the thrill that they will receive after it. That is the same principle as when people get addicted to tobacco. The first time that it occurs you will receive what people call a buzz or a slight high feeling. Certain people will enjoy the feeling of a rush, so they will look to try to get that feeling again and again. If a person that commits a theft enjoys the feeling that they receive then they have a higher chance of committing that crime again because they will be looking to get that feeling back. So, it no longer will matter what it is that they take, but they will take it just because they will get that rush again. Families have a huge sway on the way that your life plays out. They help to mold the person you are, the person you will become, and the way that you act. Your parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents share the same genes as you and since you grown up around them and watch them you will share the same tendencies. If your family has a history of having substance abuse problems then you will have a higher chance of having the same problems. The same thing goes with kleptomania or shoplifting. If you grow up watch your parents steal things then chances are that you will do the same

4 (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). It is an unfortunate fact that you are more likely to follow in the troubled footsteps of your family and it is all because you saw that kind of stuff when you were young and impressionable. It is a matter of having to establish right from wrong before the young person has that rush of stealing or making sure to include negative reinforcement in with the stealing. A fetish is loving an inanimate object to the extent of adoring it (Öncü, Türkcan, Canbek, Yeşılbursa, & Uygur, 2009). A lot of the time when a person has a strong fetish for something that specific thing will give that particular person sexual urges. With a little help from the object it helps that person to intensify their sexual pleasure. With these types of people they have two options. The first option is to do something about the urges that you have, or they won t do anything about it and if they do this then they will usually remain very stressed out about it. There have been people reported to having a fetish of kleptomania. This is call kleptophilia. This is where instead of finding and buying your fetish you would steal it. Also since it was a stolen item, then it meant a lot less to the person. There are specific things the give away a person that is into kleptophilia. Some of these things are stealing specific things that will cause sexual arousal, they will usually have a secret place where they will take the item, the person will then masturbate into or on to the item or have a partner wear the item, then after the object has been used once they will get rid of it by either burning it or throwing it away (Öncü, Türkcan, Canbek, Yeşılbursa, & Uygur, 2009). Just like other kleptomaniacs people who are into kleptophilia most of the people will be embarrassed of what they are doing. If they are embarrassed of what they are doing they are less likely to seek

5 help for what is happening. The percentage of people who actually do it is higher then what we know. Another large factor for people not coming forward for help with kleptomania is for legal reasons. It is estimated that 1 in every 11 people have shoplifted at least once in their lifetime. Shoplifting is the act of stealing goods from a store, where as kleptomania is the act of not being able to resist the urge to steal something that you don t need (Grant, Odlaug, Davis, Suck Won, 2009). In other words a kleptomaniac will steal just about anything from anywhere if they are feeling the urge to, but a shoplifter only steals goods from stores. That means that a shoplifter is usually stealing something that they need or could use. They preformed a study of college students and they found that 28.6% of them admitted to stealing something in their lifetime, but only 0.4% of those people met the criteria for kleptomania (Grant, Odlaug, Davis, Suck Won, 2009). Legal problems will happen with everyone who suffers from kleptomania, if they get caught. Out of the people who have reached out for help with this problem 64-87% of people have been arrested, and most of these people have been arrested multiple times throughout their lives. These types of people have reported significant elevations in impulsivity and risktaking (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). In other words when a kleptomaniac starts to think about or actually begins the act of stealing they will begin to feel a rush and they won t be able to stop. This type of thing is their addiction and if you ignore your addictions then you will begin to feel stressed out or discomfort. Kleptomaniacs have also proven that they have less of a chance to say no. That rush that they receive every time that they say yes to stealing is more then enough for them to keep doing it.

6 Kleptomaniacs have an extremely life to live. During there life span they will continually have to break the law without any control, they will be in trouble with the law, and if they try to stop without seeking any help they will face extreme levels of stress and discomfort. Once they get caught once then they will have to face the embarrassment of all of the people around you knowing about it. They will have a record with the police which makes it even harder to find a job. Many of the people won t even know that they are kleptomaniacs until they seek the help and diagnosis of a professional. That brings in the next embarrassing moment of their lives and that is admitting to themselves that they are or going to a therapist about it. From all of these problems it adds stress and complications to their lives. Along with the fact that a majority of kleptomaniacs also fight depression or substance abuse. With all of the extra stress that is added to their lives, kleptomaniacs have a large number of attempted suicides (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). With all of these attempted suicides there is still a lack of research for different types of treatments. This is a really hard situation in trying to find a treatment for a disorder such as this. The reason that it is hard is because there is nothing added to the body such as drugs or alcohol, so there is no other way to replace the feeling that one would get. The body naturally secrets the things that a kleptomaniac wants and the body secrets them whenever there is a risky situation. Most of the time people will choose to steal for there excitement. Stealing to them is usually the best decision because stealing is kind of one of those situations where it is low risk and high reward. There are some situations for stealing where it is high risk because you can face jail time or something even worse. Although, a lot of the time if they take something then it will be a fine or charges. As for

7 the medication side of trying to quit there is nothing that has truly proved itself as a for sure quit method. However, there are some medications that are some signs that with a little modifications it could help people quit stealing (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). The medication that has been tested on kleptomaniacs is medication that is used to treat patients that are being treated for substance abuse. There is one other way that has proven to be more successful then the medication and that is cognitive behavioral therapies. This is where they put you into a relapse prevention program. They try to get everyone in the program to abstain from stealing by helping the patients know what the signs are when they are about to steal something (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). This way if they can see it coming then they could possibly prevent what was about to happen. They will help the patients to coping with a high stress situation. Lastly they make sure to put them back on track with their lifestyle choices and working on a healthier life style. The reason that they dipped into the substance abuse medications to try and that is because these two issues are so much alike and both have been based on lack of impulse control. Both of these problems have shown that the actions will remain repetitive despite any of the terrible consequences (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). Research suggests that impulse control disorders have constantly proven that the person will continually do it despite any of the consequences. The pull of the addiction is just to strong for most people to actually be able to say no. The biggest factor that they are pretty much the same thing is the high that is received while doing it. The fact of the matter is that the faster and more intense that they high is the more addictive it is. For some people the high from stealing things is just to high, so they just physically cannot

8 stop no matter how hard they try. As they are in the middle of stealing the object they will feel tension and an adrenaline rush because there is still that chance of them getting in trouble if they get caught. Once they have completed the task at hand the tension and adrenaline will leave the body and they will receive a feeling of satisfaction with themselves because they didn t get caught. Also, as they are doing the task is when they will receive that little bit extra tension and rush. This is one of those tasks that you will have an instant rush. It is something that will get the good feeling to happen pretty much right as you start because it is a risky behavior. This is also why the harder drugs are so much more addictive then drugs such as weed. The intensity of the high is so much stronger and if you are a person that is doing drugs that high is what you are looking for. Eventually you will start to get used to what has been happening, so it will start to get duller and duller and you will have to start using even more of the substance. That is how people get to that abuse stage. They just got to used to what they had been doing and needed more to reach that next level of high. Kleptomania has basically been seen as a minor problem throughout the spam of it being considered a disorder. This is mainly because the lack of number of people that have the disorder. With lack of numbers them comes the lack of research being done on the topic. Research is going to continue between substance abuse and kleptomania (Grant, Odlaug, Kim, 2010). This is because of the striking similarities they hold. This has been proven that it has extremely addictive tendencies for these people. It is to the point where they can t control themselves. In order for them to stop they would have to look for professional help. At the same time it does have extreme problems with receiving that help and that is because we don t fully know yet. There are no medicinal

9 solutions to this problem. No guarantee, for sure, way that this problem can be solved. Basically all that they can do to help you get over it would be help instruct you on how to better your life and how to try and avoid it by giving them the knowledge that they have.

10 References 1. Grant, J. E., Odlaug, B. L., Davis, A. A., & Suck Won, K. (2009). Legal Consequences of Kleptomania. Psychiatric Quarterly, 80(4), doi: / s Grant, J. E., Odlaug, B. L., & Kim, S. (2010). Kleptomania: Clinical Characteristics and Relationship to Substance Use Disorders. American Journal Of Drug & Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), doi: / Grant, J. E., Suck Won, K., & McCabe, J. S. (2006). A Structured Clinical Interview for Kleptomania (SCI-K): preliminary validity and reliability testing. International Journal Of Methods In Psychiatric Research, 15(2), doi: /mpr Kohn, C. S. (2006). Conceptualization and Treatment of Kleptomania Behaviors Using Cognitive and Behavioral Strategies. International Journal Of Behavioral Consultation & Therapy, 2(4), Öncü, F., Türkcan, S., Canbek, Ö., Yeşılbursa, D., & Uygur, N. (2009). Fetishism and Kleptomania: A Case Report in Forensic Psychiatry. Archives Of Neuropsychiatry / Noropsikiatri Arsivi, 46(3), Final Grade- 85%