Plyushkin syndrome - a mental illness, how to deal with it

Plyushkin syndrome is a pathological accumulation of rubbish. Man is a psycho-emotional being, and therefore we all tend to leave some things as souvenirs. A child’s first shoes, postcards from loved ones, various little things that remind you of important life events. All this is nice, but only until the time when there are too many useless objects.

The mental illness Plyushkin syndrome is called syllogomania. Another name is hoarding. The deviation requires treatment and correction, and if you turn a blind eye to the addiction to hoarding, sooner or later your home will turn into a dump.

Origin of the name of the syndrome

This behavior is named after the famous character from the work “Dead Souls,” written by Gogol in 1841. The fictional landowner suffers from a mental disorder that dictates to him the rules for storing things.

The character drags completely useless objects into the house and leaves them “until the right opportunity.” It is not surprising that his name has become a household name and now denotes the corresponding syndrome.

What it is

The disease was named after a character in Gogol’s “Dead Souls.” Plyushkin constantly brought useless rubbish into his house, which he thought would be needed in the future.

Do not confuse Plyushkin syndrome and shopaholism. In the first case, a person is not ready to part with his acquisitions.

In America, this pathology is called “
syllogomania ,” which means insanity in old age.
Indeed, 3-4% of older people tend to accumulate unnecessary things. There are other names for the syndrome: hoarding, Messi syndrome, dyspozophobia, moss-eating. The ancient Greek scientist Diogenes spent his entire life in a barrel, demonstrating his independence from the outside world. So he rather showed disdain for his personality. Therefore, it is quite easy to determine what exactly bothers a person - Diogenes syndrome or pathological hoarding.

Depending on the type of items collected, the following types of syndrome are distinguished:

1. Pathological hoarding of animals. The patient collects animals. Most often these are dogs or cats. Sometimes there are so many of them that the home becomes unsanitary.
2. Conservism. A person is interested in canning food. Banks completely fill the living space.
3. Vintageism. A person's home turns into a museum with a huge number of antiques.
4. Sentimental Plyushkin. The patient collects things that remind him of the person with whom there was a difficult breakup.
5. Book library. Sometimes connoisseurs of literary works buy books in huge quantities.

Syllogomania poses a potential threat to humans. Over time, insane people begin to get sick due to their living conditions and lead an antisocial lifestyle that poses a danger to other people.

The syndrome develops rapidly, so it is very difficult to stop. Many doctors do not even undertake the treatment of such a disease.

Causes

Syllogomania - what is it: a disease or a behavioral feature of a person? How to treat Plyushkin syndrome? Let's look further and start by identifying the reasons.

Attachment to things is characteristic of people of different ages. If this is a child, then the main causes of Plyushkin syndrome or unreasonable hoarding are:

• stressful situations;
• psychological trauma;
• lack of parental attention.

In case of lack of attention, the child begins to “accumulate” rare moments of joy when he manages to have a good time with his parents. He keeps everything connected with such moments - sweet wrappers, broken toys, drawings. Severe stress and trauma disrupt the psyche, which subsequently leads to the formation of deviations.

Elderly and senile people most often suffer from Plyushkin syndrome, which is most often associated with diseases: schizophrenia, dementia, obsessive-compulsive disorder. Elderly people now living in the countries of the former USSR remember times of famine and shortages of everything. Access to food, medicine, clothing, shoes, household chemicals and other important things was limited. As a result, they developed a passion for hoarding: if some disaster happened, they must have a supply of everything necessary for survival. Even if it's canned food that expired 5 years ago.

Young and middle-aged people are also susceptible to mental illness, stress and trauma. For example, the death of a loved one is a traumatic event, due to which all the belongings of the deceased are stored and protected. Even if it's broken fishing rods, a holey sweater or burnt out light bulbs.

Briefly speaking, treatment of Plyushkin syndrome begins with searching for the causes of its occurrence. But it is necessary to treat the deviation, otherwise a whole dump of useless rubbish will accumulate in the house.

Stages of development

What Plyushkin syndrome is can be clearly seen in this photo:

Like other diseases, syllogomania develops gradually. At first, a person refuses to say goodbye to old things that should go to the trash heap. Then he begins to store everything, even broken down equipment and torn clothes. Next comes the collecting stage: “Plyushkin” picks up unnecessary things from landfills and garbage containers that seem necessary and useful to him.

Often neglected patients allow dozens of stray animals into the house, turning the home into a foul-smelling shelter. Plyushkin syndrome becomes a real problem not only for the patient’s relatives, but also for his neighbors.

Plyushkin syndrome: treatment and prevention

Treatment for a disease should begin after the patient’s consent, otherwise everything is pointless. The disease is diagnosed after examination, MRI, and then a final verdict is made on the severity of the syndrome.

Initially, people around him help to refer the patient to the clinic, signaling a violation of public order in the house and inconvenience to neighbors. At the initial stage of Diogenes syndrome, a psychiatrist and his home visits can help, but the use of antidepressants and sedatives is a necessary measure. By surrounding a person with care and help, you can get him out of a harmful state without hospitalization.

Motivation

The patient can be motivated by the benefits of society and the lack of free space for guests in the apartment. Sometimes garbage drives the owner out of the apartment in extreme cases, then verbal arguments will no longer help, isolation in a psychiatric clinic is required.

You can remove unnecessary trash from your apartment through charity, explaining to the person that there are people in need. Attempts to live in a clean home without dirt may be met with hostility, but periodic reminders of order will lead to success.

Varieties of the syndrome

Based on the type of “gathering”, hoarding is divided into several types:

1. Cluttering your home with old items, sometimes vintage, but in most cases still useless.
2. The desire to place as many animals as possible in your home.
3. Hoarding food in excessive quantities, as well as eating expired food.
4. Preserving things that belonged to loved ones.
5. Accumulating things that will supposedly be useful one day.

Sometimes several varieties merge into one, and in particularly advanced cases, all types of Plyushkin syndrome are observed simultaneously.

Plyushkin syndrome: stages of the disease

As for the stages of Plyushkin syndrome, there are several of them:

• 1st stage. A person's home is cluttered, but not on a regular basis. That is, this is the stage at which, perhaps, every person finds himself from time to time. There is no huge amount of junk in the house, and most importantly, it is clean and comfortable.
• 2nd stage. There are quite a lot of things scattered in the room; cleaning is not carried out there. At best, things are simply moved around, shifted from place to place. It is difficult to move around the room, but there is no unpleasant smell, and if you want, you can restore order in the shortest possible time.
• 3rd stage. This stage is characterized by severe cluttering of rooms, at least 1 room is already completely like a dump, there are a lot of necessary and unnecessary things lying around in it, it is simply impossible to get through there. Due to the garbage not being taken out, a characteristic smell appears in the house, but so far only the tenant himself suffers from it.

Clutter

• 4th stage. There is already too much junk in the house and it is not concentrated somewhere in one place. There are also unsanitary conditions in the house. There is dirt, dust, mold and an unpleasant odor everywhere, which at this stage interferes with the lives of not only the residents of this premises, but also their neighbors.
• 5th stage. At this stage, the apartment does not resemble a residential building; it can easily be confused with a landfill. Things are lying everywhere, everything is filled with boxes, bags and other unnecessary rubbish. There are cockroaches, rodents and other “guests” in the house who like such living conditions. It is simply impossible to walk through the apartment. The stench permeates the entire entrance. Apartments and houses in this condition are a real threat. Very often, due to unsanitary conditions in them and the lifestyle of their owners, fires, floods, etc. occur.

Who is most susceptible to this syndrome?

Plyushkin syndrome is a mental illness, and older people suffer from it more than others. As mentioned above, living elderly people have a passion for hoarding due to the fresh memory of the shortage of almost all goods at the end of the last century.

It is difficult to determine exactly which categories of the population are more prone to pathological hoarding. Anyone can face personal disaster, severe stress, or the loss of loved ones. The risk group includes persons with a tendency to mental disorders. These may be people whose relatives have schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, personality disorders and other diseases of a similar nature.

Diagnostic criteria for Plyushkin syndrome

Pathological hoarding disorder is a chronic disorder. At the moment, Plyushkin syndrome is not included as a separate nosological unit (disease) in modern classifiers, although the medical community is considering the need to indicate this disorder in the next, eleventh, edition of the ICD.

To determine the disorder, the following diagnostic criteria for Plyushkin syndrome are used:

1. The need to throw away or give away things that are not even of real value to someone causes significant difficulties.
2. A feeling of a strong need to preserve things and discomfort at the suggestion that they need to be gotten rid of.
3. Accumulating property clutters living and utility rooms, so these spaces cannot be used for their intended purpose.
4. A pathological tendency to keep unnecessary things creates discomfort and leads to problems in social, everyday, professional and other areas of activity.

Symptoms

Plyushkin syndrome - what is it and what are its symptoms? Recognizing a person suffering from syllogomania is quite simple. But only in the case when the disease is advanced and it is difficult to enter the home of such a “Plyushkin”, since the entire space is occupied by heaps of rubbish.

There are some other aspects by which Comrade Plyushkin is defined:

1. Collecting and storing things thrown away by someone.
2. Creating a home shelter for a large number of animals.
3. The desire to fill all the free space with any things.
4. Storing absolutely everything, even trash.
5. Reuse of disposable materials.
6. Reluctance to use a new thing until the old one literally falls apart.
7. Clutter, lack of structure among the rubbish.

Those who came face to face with modern Plyushkin think about what syllogomania is and how to live with such a person. If you live with older people (they constitute the main risk group), take a closer look at their habits, because preventing hoarding is easier than treating an advanced disease.

What does Plyushkin syndrome lead to?

There are very clear criteria that allow us to say unequivocally: “Stop, this is no longer a passion for creative disorder and not collecting things dear to the heart. This is a pathology."

American researchers have created the scale THE 5 HOARDING LEVELS AND GUIDELINES FOR RECOGNIZING THE DISORDER, which allows you to assess the seriousness of the problem.

I level

There is some chaos, but not excessive. Access to doors and stairs is free, movement is quite easy, and there are no unpleasant odors. In general, the home looks slightly cluttered, but neat.

Level II

The trash cans are overflowing. Part of the space - 1-2 rooms - is littered with things, it is difficult to move there. Mold is growing in the kitchen and bathroom. All horizontal surfaces are so cluttered that they cannot be used. Access to one of the exits from the house is blocked by a landfill.

Level III

At least one of the rooms is uninhabitable: it is impossible to move in it. Other rooms are in disarray, dusty and dirty, and smell bad. The corridors and passages are cluttered. In case of fire or smoke, a person will not be able to escape.

IV level

There is so much trash and dirt that using the bathroom and bedroom is almost impossible from the point of view of an outsider. There is noticeable mold on the walls and floor. There are problems with clogged drains and electrical wiring.

Level V

Housing looks more like a landfill. There is practically no free space - everything is crammed with things and garbage. They are infested with cockroaches, rats and other vermin. There is no electricity or water, the sewage system does not work: either the wires are broken or the pipes are clogged.

The situation threatens not only the Horder, but also his neighbors in the apartment building. They have to endure stench, pests and the constant threat of flood or fire.

Of course, completely advanced cases are rare. However, they are quite possible if you do not stop in time.

How to recognize Plyushkin syndrome at an early stage

Many people know what Plyushkin syndrome is. Its manifestations in an advanced stage are noticeable immediately, but the disease develops gradually. It does not happen that just yesterday a person calmly threw away a broken ladle, and today he lovingly presses it to his chest and is not going to give up without a fight.

In the early stages, it is difficult to identify Plyushkin syndrome as a disease, but there are some tricks. So, here are the bells of early syllogomania:

1. A person becomes overly attached to things and is not able to easily part with, for example, a damaged T-shirt. He puts it in a drawer with other holey and torn clothes with the intention of reusing them one day. How is not specified. It's just necessary and that's it.
2. The “patient” is very reluctant to borrow things or never gives anything for temporary use. If he has had an uninteresting book lying around for a long time, which he opened and slammed shut, Plyushkin will still take care of the publication. Even from myself.
3. The hope that one day everything will come in handy. Cleaning is accompanied by exclamations of approximately the following content: “Now I’ll throw away this postcard, and in 7 years I’ll want to dive into memories, and then what? Of course I will leave her!”

Plyushkin syndrome is a mental illness. How to treat an unusual disease, we will consider further.

How does Plyushkin syndrome manifest?

The first sign is when it is morally very difficult to say goodbye to old things, and even if the thing is definitely no longer useful, you really don’t want to part with it

With Plyushkin syndrome, the causes can be varied, but most often a person is not aware of the abnormality of his behavior. Manifestations, signs and symptoms of Plyushkin syndrome manifest themselves in different ways. In psychiatry, a five-point scale has been adopted to classify the severity of the disorder. The first level of Plyushkin syndrome is the accumulation of potentially useful things, their organization and provision of free access to furniture and communications. The most difficult, the fifth level, is characterized by the inability to part with rubbish, cluttering of the home, inability to access communications (bathroom, kitchen, toilet) due to piles of various things.

Plyushkin syndrome can manifest itself in different ways. At the very beginning of the development of pathology, a person experiences a reluctance to part with unnecessary things, which over time transforms into the need to accumulate various items. As a rule, “Plyushkins” find themselves in collecting and hoarding simple everyday things, rather than collecting rarities and wonders.

Storing unnecessary things

Plyushkin syndrome is a mental illness that develops in several stages and is characterized by different symptoms. As a rule, the disease begins with the fact that a person simply cannot part with unnecessary things. Often the first symptoms make themselves felt in adolescence, and are finally transformed into psychopathology by the age of 30-35.

Everyone, when carrying out general cleaning and auditing of existing things, asks the question of what they really need and what it’s time to part with. It is absolutely normal for a person to regret that it is time to throw away some thing, especially if it reminds of some period in his life. With Plyushkin syndrome, throwing away unnecessary things is problematic for a person. The thought “what if it’s needed” arises in his head, so the unnecessary item is simply moved to the far corner.

At first, everything looks harmless enough, and the inability to part with unnecessary trash can be mistaken for sentimentality. Over the years, the problem takes on a serious turn, since a person’s home does not change, but only becomes cluttered as new things are acquired, since the old ones remain in their places.

It is interesting that a person does not experience sentimentality as such in relation to stored things. That is, everything that “Plyushkin” cannot part with is not things that are memorable to the heart, but ordinary broken and unnecessary trash.

Collecting discarded items

In people with Plyushkin syndrome, the accumulation of discarded things, over time, takes on a manic form

This variant of the manifestation of Plyushkin syndrome becomes a real problem for others. In essence, collecting discarded items is storing at home various rubbish that a person brought from a landfill. This could be broken furniture, empty containers, discarded books and other items.

A person with the syndrome spends a lot of time near garbage cans, methodically going through all the landfills, looking for potentially useful items. Moreover, the things brought are never used for their intended purpose, but are simply dumped in one heap in the home of a sick person.

All this is fraught with unsanitary conditions, since the things brought are not processed or washed. Older people are more likely to experience this manifestation of the syndrome. For them, the accumulation of discarded things takes on a manic form and is accompanied by pathological greed, so landfills and garbage cans become places of daily visit.

Pet hoarding

This norm of Plyushkin syndrome is a serious social problem, and is often mistaken for cruelty towards animals. The problem is exacerbated if a person lives in an apartment building with neighbors who suffer from numerous pets.

A striking manifestation of this form of pathology is the image of a crazy cat lady, widely used in cinema and animation. A person with such a disorder brings home all the stray animals, not paying attention to the fact that the living space is not enough to comfortably keep the pets. A person may have a dozen dogs, thirty cats, and countless rodents, such as rabbits, in his apartment.

At the same time, there is no proper care for animals. Pets often do not receive the necessary nutrition, “Plyushkin” does not monitor the hygiene of animals and their reproduction. The consequence is the rapid reproduction of pets in an apartment or house, complete unsanitary conditions, and the risk of contagious infections transmitted from animals to people also increases.

You can become familiar with this disease by studying a photo of the home of a person with Plyushkin syndrome. For example, one person had rabbits all over his apartment; there were more than 50 of them in a small area. Naturally, the entire apartment was dirty with animal feces, since the patient simply physically could not cope with cleaning up after so many animals.

The problem of animal hoarding involves conflicts with neighbors and the law, since keeping a large number of pets borders on cruelty to animals. It should be noted that a patient with this psychopathological syndrome sincerely loves his pets and does not try to harm them, but does not realize that animals cannot live in unsuitable conditions.

Plyushkin syndrome and shopaholism

Before you figure out how you can get rid of Plyushkin syndrome, you should be able to distinguish it from shopaholism.

First of all, Plyushkin syndrome involves receiving something for free or for next to nothing. Therefore, patients do not neglect garbage cans and landfills, and are happy to take away what their friends plan to throw away. Shopaholism has another goal - to acquire some thing regardless of its cost. Typically, shopaholism does not have a clear goal, but is limited to the purchase of various items, while “Plyushkinism” borders on pathological greed, so a person takes home everything that he got for nothing.

In rare cases, both violations overlap, but then the “plushkins” become preoccupied with purchasing various, often unnecessary, things on sales and at a deep discount.

Treatment of the syndrome

Relatives are often perplexed about how to deal with Plyushkin syndrome, because simple requests and persuasion do not work on thrifty keepers. It is not recommended to throw out all the trash on your own in the absence of its owner, since such an event provokes stress in the “patient”.

Imagine that your favorite thing was brazenly destroyed. What emotions will you experience? The same thing happens in the soul of “Plyushkin”: you know that it’s time to throw away three bags of old shoes, but for the “sick” this is a real treasure.

Constant attempts to convince “Plyushkin” of the inadequacy of his actions will not lead to the desired result, so feel free to contact psychologists. If they don’t help, then a psychiatrist will definitely help. Drug therapy is prescribed in cases where syllogomania is provoked by another mental illness. In other cases, hoarding is corrected through psychotherapy sessions.

If you are confident in your abilities, try to achieve order yourself. Convince that old things are blocking the flow of new clean energy. Ask to demonstrate how a specific item (that should be thrown away) can be used right now. Offer one new item in exchange for 10 old ones. All these tricks help if you solve the problem systematically and systematically.

Features of treatment

If a person is diagnosed with Plyushkin syndrome, how to deal with the problem depends on its stage. To combat pathological hoarding at the initial stage, when a person simply cannot part with unnecessary things, general cleaning under the supervision of a loved one is indicated. It is up to the friend or relative to decide which items are most likely to be thrown away. In this case, you should first visit a doctor who will help you cope with negative emotions while cleaning your home.

It is necessary to get rid of Plyushkin syndrome with the help of cognitive behavioral therapy - this will help restrain impulses to bring home unnecessary trash. To combat Plyushkin syndrome, medications may be indicated, for example, antidepressants and antipsychotics, but only if concomitant mental disorders are identified.

A story from my life about a person with syllogomania

I know a family - a single mother and a ten-year-old daughter. The parent likes to forget with the help of alcohol, often leaving the child to his own devices. The girl really lacks her mother’s attention and love, and this is visible to the naked eye. Lack of attention and love from parents is a common cause of the development of Plyushkin syndrome in childhood.

The daughter tries in every way to attract her mother’s attention and constantly drags home various rubbish that she finds on the street. The woman swears and gets angry at the girl, but it is at such moments that the child feels that attention has been paid to him. Even if it is aggressive, angry, cruel, but still attention.

This peculiar Plyushkin syndrome is not the only deviation in the girl’s behavior, but only one of the manifestations of a mother’s lack of love for her child.

Symptoms

Absolute indifference to appearance and the norms of social society make a patient with Diogenes syndrome look like a street tramp. Within the limits of the norm, public undressing and dressing, as well as finding things in landfills is acceptable.

The plot of “Dead Souls,” namely the character Plyushkin, gave a clear picture of the concept of a syllogmaniac, collecting all the necessary and unnecessary rubbish in his closet. Plyushkin's problem is that he not only does not throw away old things, but also brings in new ones. Inappropriate aggression towards throwing away one's belongings turns into mental mania.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZwxLt3WTN4

Symptoms of the disease are:

• isolation from the outside world;
• unwillingness to live in cleanliness and order;
• anger in response to outside attempts to help;
• lack of shame;
• greed to spend money;
• accumulation of old trash.

When collecting stamps or small souvenirs in childhood, no one can predict that this is fraught with a mental disorder in the future. It is quite difficult to notice the disease at an early stage, since both poor and wealthy people suffer from it.

Initially, this may manifest itself in a desire to save on rent or food, then on things. Neighbors must notice the enclosed space and their constant presence in it and must signal this.

Indifference to one's appearance and lack of daily hygiene procedures leads to an unpleasant odor and turning into a street tramp. The reluctance to communicate with friends and acquaintances does not concern a patient with Plyushkin syndrome, since he considers it beneath his dignity.