Plushkin's syndrome: causes, stages of development, symptoms and treatment of the disease. Plushkin's syndrome - symptoms and treatment Old misers: clinical manifestations of Diogenes syndrome

Plushkin's syndrome: causes and signs of pathological hoarding

Maria Barnikova

A separate form of obsessive behavior is pathological hoarding of things. Causes, signs and methods of treatment of Plushkin's syndrome.

Pathological hoarding, which in common people has a humorous name - Plyushkin's Syndrome - is a separate form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. This pathological mania is manifested in the presence of obsessive thinking and behavior in a person, the essence of which is the collection and storage of various things in huge quantities. Collected items, most often clothes, shoes, household utensils, are not used for personal needs and are not intended for sale. A person with Plushkin's syndrome accumulates things in such quantities that they not only litter the room, but make it impossible to use housing for its intended purpose.

Pathological hoarding has many other names: syllogomania, dyspophobia, Messi syndrome, senile squalor syndrome, hoarding. The Orthodox Church also drew attention to this problem, giving the disorder the name “msheloism” and attributing this anomalous predilection to human sins.

Persons suffering from Plushkin's syndrome are not able to critically assess their condition. They consider the collection and storage of things to be quite normal, even if the size of the accumulations reaches gigantic proportions. They try to rationalize their illogical craving for acquisitiveness by making absurd and ridiculous arguments.

Living together with a sick person experience extreme inconvenience. Let's give some examples.

The apartment of an individual with Plushkin's syndrome resembles a garbage dump. Residents of the apartment can not move freely around the room due to the huge pile of various items. They are unable to dine in comfortable conditions, as the kitchen table is littered with rubbish. A cluster of unnecessary products is observed in the sink, refrigerator, kitchen cabinets. Visiting the bathroom or restroom is also a problem, as these rooms are cluttered with large bales of things. There are trash bags on the beds, on the desks, and just piled on the floor.

A separate type of Messiah syndrome is a person's pathological passion for pets, a situation where an individual has an unthinkable number of animals in an apartment. The presence of several dozen cats or dogs not only worsens the patient's living conditions, but also creates a number of difficulties for neighbors.

Pathological hoarding, in addition to aggravating the mental disorder of the patient, leads to very dangerous consequences. In the apartment of a person with Plushkin's syndrome, there is a high risk of trash fire and there is a risk of serious injury. The consequence of unsanitary conditions is the appearance of Prussians, cockroaches, bedbugs, fleas and other insects. Due to the clutter of the home and the failure to comply with elementary sanitary measures, the walls of the premises are often covered with fungal infections. The resulting disorder is the complete isolation of the patient from society.

Plushkin Syndrome: Causes

The mechanisms for the development of passion for pathological hoarding are not fully understood, however, doctors identify a number of factors that can initiate the development of the disorder. The most common causes of compulsive behavior are the following circumstances.

• Features of the personal constitution. Most often, people with Plushkin syndrome are overly stingy and prudent people. Their life credo is saving every penny. In such persons, attention is fixed on thoughts: in order to get rich in the end, it is imperative to save money all your life and use existing things to holes. Dysposophobes are people who are unable to adapt and establish contacts in society. These are closed, emotionally clamped, unsociable persons.
• Material trouble in personal history. Many patients have experienced significant financial difficulties in the past, experienced times of deprivation and need. Even with the improvement in the situation, people with Plushkin's syndrome continue to stockpile, packing and hoarding food for "rainy days".
• Serious life shocks. A psychotraumatic situation can start the disorder ( read about) and personal drama: death of a close relative, parting with a loved one, severe illness of a spouse, own health problems.
• Unfavorable heredity. At risk are people with a family history of obsessive-compulsive and anxiety-phobic disorders, bipolar depression, various forms psychopathy.
• Organic diseases of the central nervous system and brain. The presence of pathologies in the central nervous system, especially those caused by acute circulatory disorders, can initiate the development of pathological hoarding. Also, Plushkin's syndrome can develop after suffering head injuries.
• Chronic alcoholism. Excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to global changes in the structure of personality - its disintegration. Plushkin's syndrome in this case is one of the manifestations of degradation. (Read about alcoholism treatment).
• Senile dementia. Against the background of dementia, abnormal tendencies often appear, while pathological hoarding is one of the most common deviations in old age.

Plushkin's syndrome: symptoms

There is a special scale for differentiating the severity of this form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, dividing Plushkin's syndrome into five stages, as the onset of which there is an aggravation of symptoms and an increasing clutter of the room. Signs of pathological attraction are:

• saving all old items that have reached the end of their service life and cannot be used in the future;
• unsystematic warehousing of things in a heap, without sorting;
• obvious clutter of the home with unnecessary rubbish;
• inability to use the premises for its intended purpose;
• irresistible impulses to buy unnecessary items for a symbolic cost at sales and flea markets;
• accepting unnecessary, but free products from other people;
• collecting items that other people left at the trash can;
• failure to comply with standard sanitary measures for cleaning the home;
• parting with old things the individual perceives as a significant loss;
• the development of depression if other tenants cleaned the apartment and threw out some of the garbage.

Plushkin's syndrome: treatment methods

At the moment, a unified strategy for the treatment of pathological hoarding has not been developed, which could guarantee stable and long-term remission. However, there are a number of methods that positive influence on the well-being of a patient with Plushkin's syndrome and reduce the severity of the disorder. To select treatment tactics, it is necessary to establish the factor that served as a trigger in the development of the disorder.

If it is established that the debut of Plyushkin's syndrome occurred after a severe mental trauma or was the result of a chronic one, it is advisable to use psychotherapeutic techniques, combining them with hypnosis sessions. If pathological hoarding started against the background of organic diseases of the brain or arose as a result of acute violation blood supply, the efforts of doctors are concentrated on easing the symptoms of the underlying disease. In the case when painful money-grubbing is a companion of alcohol addiction, a person needs to urgently visit a narcologist and undergo an appropriate course of therapy.

The most severe character of Plushkin's syndrome is determined in humans old age, in such a situation, it is very difficult to overcome compulsive tendencies. Work with elderly patients takes place in a gentle, non-aggressive manner.

Overcoming the passion for hoarding is a long and painstaking work that requires not only the high professionalism of a doctor, but also close attention from the patient's relatives.

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Many people have a craving for various subjects carrying a special memory and memories. It can be souvenirs, gifts, postcards, toys from childhood and things from loved ones. But what if the craving for the accumulation of unnecessary trash has turned into a whole mania? If the habit has gone beyond the bounds of reason, psychologists talk about Plushkin's syndrome. Plyushkin's syndrome is a pathological condition and uncontrolled human behavior.

If we consider the problem with medical point, it is difficult to call Plushkin's syndrome a disease and a dysfunctional disorder of the body. But psychotherapists and psychologists insist that this is a serious problem that requires correction and professional help. Otherwise, pathologically abnormal behavior will lead to a compulsive disorder that negatively affects the quality of life.

As practice shows, the tendency to accumulate various material things and objects begins with the usual rationality and economy of man. That is, a person begins to collect any items that have at least some importance or a semantic message. Further, the addiction progresses and completely unnecessary rubbish begins to be stored, and the person loses control over his addiction. It is important to recognize the problem, understand its causes, and seek professional help.

Origin

Plyushkin's syndrome received such a specific name for a reason, in order to understand its nature, it is enough to look into Russian classical literature. Many people know the novel by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol "Dead Souls", the second volume of which was, unfortunately, burned. So in this novel there was a character Stepan Plyushkin, who stored solid rubbish in the family estate.

The novel well describes the drama in the life of the character, against the background of which Stepan began to collect completely unnecessary things in the house that do not carry meaning and functions. Moreover, each item was so dear to him that he could not even think about parting with it. The main difference between Plyushkin's syndrome and shopaholism is that a person does not buy things, but receives them practically for free, and in no case gives them to anyone, even for a large fee.

Causes

What is Plushkin's syndrome, what factors and disorders entail strange and pathological behavior, scientists and specialists still cannot explain. As patients with this disorder have been studied, several causes have been identified that, in theory, can lead to such consequences, namely:

• personality traits- economy and prudence, greed and stinginess, a tendency to hoarding;
• maladaptation- being in society is alien to a person, and rubbish barricades are a protective barrier from the environment;
• unfavorable living conditions- transferred material problems, acute shortages and periods of crisis;
• heredity- propensities for such behavior can be transmitted at the genetic level;
• childhood problems- poverty and the lack of toys, goodies and gifts can lead to making up for the lack in adulthood;
• injury- prolonged depression, psychological trauma against the background of grief and stress;
• loneliness- due to the lack of live communication, a person replaces emptiness with unnecessary things;
• pathology- diseases of the central nervous system, circulatory system, neoplasms or injuries of the craniocerebral region, surgeries, neuralgic diseases;
• mental disorders- often the syndrome occurs against the background of schizophrenia;
• bad habits- Dependence on alcohol or drugs can lead to such a disorder.

Do you have a habit of saving old things?

YesNot

If the specialist was able to determine the causes of Plushkin's syndrome, respectively, you can choose effective way fight against a pathological condition.

stages

Like any other disease and pathology, Plushkin's syndrome has a long period of development and progression.

In this regard, experts separately consider several stages of a pathological disorder, namely:

1. initial stage- a tendency to accumulate things that do not belong to the category of essentials. People buy things at sales, believing that they will come in handy sooner or later in the household.
2. middle stage- people litter the house with useless things, while the correction of behavior and well-being is still possible.
3. point of no return- it is already almost impossible to help such people, a real garbage dump and unsanitary conditions form in the house.

Expert opinion

Victor Brenz

Psychologist and self-development expert

In connection with such a disappointing diagnosis the third stage of the Plushkin syndrome, it becomes clear that it is extremely important to detect a person’s pathological behavior in a timely manner, recognize the existence of a problem, and most importantly, contact a specialist for help.

Varieties

Despite the fact that in most people the syndrome develops in approximately the same scenario, experts in the course of studying the problem have identified several varieties of Plushkin's syndrome. The manifestation may be as follows:

• vintageism- the desire to acquire antiques and antiques, which develops into turning the house into a museum with various useless items.
• Pseudo-collecting- a person begins to collect absolutely everything that has no value and semantic flow. Collectors tend to want to collect one or more things, but not everything.
• "Fitness"- such people believe that completely meaningless objects will actually be very useful in everyday life, even if it is clothes eaten by moths or broken appliances.
• Acquisition of animals- some patients did not collect objects, but animals, which in the end leads to complete unsanitary conditions.
• "Conservatism"- some housewives are so fond of preserving food that, as a result of excessive housekeeping and rationality, the house begins to be completely filled with banks.
• Sentimental Plushkin- a person collects unnecessary items that carry memories of the past and certain people.

Each type of pathological disorder requires a separate examination and study of a specialist, as well as the preparation of an individual program for the correction and therapy of the patient.

Who is exposed

Particular attention should be paid to the question of who is at risk in order to protect yourself in a timely manner. Psychologists identify several groups of people who may be threatened by Plushkin's syndrome, namely:

• alcoholics;
• outcasts and antisocial individuals prone to loneliness and withdrawn behavior;
• phlegmatic, prone to the creation and accumulation of things;
• book lovers;
• sentimental personalities;
• greedy and mean people.

The syndrome can be prevented if the prerequisites and the first manifestations of excessive cravings for various objects and rash purchases are detected in a timely manner.

Main symptoms

In order for Plushkin's syndrome to be timely detected by the person himself or his close people, it is enough to know him characteristic symptoms and the first signs of manifestation. Typically, the patient has the following clinical picture:

• fear that the thing will be taken away or it will be lost;
• the appearance in the house of things that do not have a functional and semantic load;
• greed and frugality that goes beyond normal behavior;
• visits to commission shops, flea markets and even landfills;
• unsanitary conditions in the home;
• refusal of personal hygiene and care of one's appearance;
• antisocial behavior, loss of communication skills, withdrawn behavior.

Ultimately, a person starts himself and his home so much that unsanitary conditions and lack of hygiene lead to the development of concomitant diseases. In addition, it begins to suffer nervous system, a person becomes embittered, asocial and aggressive, it seems to him that everyone wants to take away from him “precious” things that completely litter the home.

Ways to deal with the syndrome

Diverting attention

A person can be offered to do a good deed by giving some things to really needy people. For example, if a patient folds toys, they can be donated to an orphanage. The main emphasis should be on the fact that the patient shows feelings of pity, compassion and kindness towards the defenseless segment of the population, which can be an excellent motivator for the treatment of the syndrome.

Conversation

At the reception, the psychologist creates a favorable environment for frank conversations with the patient, reveals his fears, and then confronts him with them face to face. Only in this way can you completely get rid of fears, thanks to which the mania for collecting unnecessary trash will disappear.

Antiexample

The patient can be shown a film or documentary about patients with the same problem, which will help to visually see and accept the problem. A negative example of what an excessive passion for littering the home leads to can change the patient's attitude to his condition.

Syndrome scientifically

Plushkin's syndrome scientifically sounds like syllogomania, that is pathological condition person, which carries a great danger to health. In the most advanced cases, patients begin to litter their home so much that they are faced with complete unsanitary conditions. In addition, a person refuses to take care of himself and basic hygiene, lead an asocial lifestyle. All this leads to the loss of personality for society, the development of comorbidities.

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Conclusion

Plyushkin's syndrome or syllogomania is a pathological disorder in the behavior and psyche of a person, which leads to an excessive accumulation of unnecessary things that do not carry meaning. Only in the case of a timely appeal to a specialist, awareness of the problem and the reasons that contributed to this, a person has a chance of recovery. Correction of the condition consists in therapy by a psychologist or psychotherapist.

Let's talk about Plushkin's syndrome. Surely many have heard about people who collect rubbish from all over the neighborhood into their house, turning their home into a real garbage dump.

They collect even the most useless things in their house: empty vials, bottles, broken furniture and other rubbish, eventually littering the apartment to such an extent that it is impossible to pass.

If someone tries to free their home from garbage, the Plushkins begin to aggressively interfere with this. Especially relatives and neighbors who are forced to live in unsanitary conditions suffer from this condition.

What is the cause of Plushkin's syndrome?

This phenomenon belongs more to psychiatry than psychology, so I will describe only my own thoughts on this matter.

Some studies have shown that this disease is often accompanied by organic brain damage as a result of trauma, circulatory disorders, stroke and other organic damage. However, there may be other reasons as well.

Whatever the reason, one thing is common - a person loses the ability to control his behavior. Normally, various human desires are in balance, constantly critically comprehended. In the case of organic brain damage, a person loses the ability to think critically, as a result of which the main personality trait (in this case, thrift) is not limited to anything.

What is thrift? Thrift is a program of hoarding, one might even say, automatism. What happens if you give a command to the machine and do not cancel it? That's right, it will do what is written in it until it is turned off. Now imagine that one of the main automatisms in a person was thrift, and then, for some reason, he lost the ability to shape his behavior. It doesn't matter why: dementia, head injury, alcoholism, stroke or something else. The bottom line is that he begins to fulfill what was laid in him.

If a person's leading personality trait was compassion for living beings, then a person, due to a brain injury, can begin to collect a menagerie of dozens of homeless cats and dogs in his apartment. Observed an interesting variety of this disorder: breeding a large number cows in the village, without any purpose.

Some other strange behavior may be observed. The main characteristic is the loss of reasonable limits.

In a word, the main cause of Plushkin's syndrome is a violation of higher cognitive functions. In particular, David Tolin found that in people suffering from this syndrome, the activity of those areas of the brain that are responsible for decision-making is greatly reduced.

There may be another reason - the formation of addiction in a person. Dependence can be formed from anything, and not just from psychoactive substances. Although this is also not good, in this case there is hope for a cure. Tomorrow there will be a separate article about dependencies.

What should relatives do?

If you suspect that your relative or loved one has something similar, the first thing to do is to examine him. First you need to take this person to the clinic and sign up for medical examination. By the way, it should be done regularly by all people. It might be worth doing an MRI. In a word, trust the doctors.

It should be understood that a person is sick, and there is no point in indulging his illness. If your loved one is sick with the Plushkin syndrome, this does not mean that you are obliged to live with him in the garbage. Throw away unnecessary things and bend your line. Surely you will have to enter into a conflict for this. We'll have to choose: indulge the disease, or live in the dirt. In the first case, you will have a chance that the person will come to terms with the fact that you are such a bad person who constantly throws away his jewelry.

Most likely, neither persuasion nor logical arguments will work, which means there is not much point in bringing them up. If you do not want to conflict, then it is better not to advertise your measures for cleaning the premises, but simply throw out the trash every day. You can resort to various tricks. For example, say that you rented a storage room where you will store these valuable things, and you yourself take them to the trash.

One of interesting features mental abnormalities based on brain damage is that a person does not understand that he is doing something wrong. He just doesn't understand. For example, if the part of the brain that is responsible for recognizing geometric shapes, a person can live as if nothing had happened, confusing his wife's head with a hat, and at the same time assume that everything is in order, and he sees normally. Even a whole book has been written about this “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”, where a lot of such cases are described.

The problem is not new. Gogol published his Dead Souls in 1842. And somewhere since then, the shadow of the old man Plyushkin has been wandering around the world, who dragged into the house everything that came to hand, and if it was necessary to throw out some rubbish, he experienced almost physical suffering.

It is not known how many Plyushkins were in the middle of the 19th century. But now there are so many of them that the surname has become the name of a popular neurological syndrome.

Perhaps this pathology is already developing in you or your loved ones. Check.

Where does Plushkin's syndrome come from?

Plyushkin is still a Russian hero. In English-language sources, the same neurological disorder is denoted differently - messi syndrome (from the English mess - disorder) or hording Hoarding: The Basics(from English to hoard - accumulate). Regardless of the name, we are talking about the same thing - pathological hoarding.

At the initial stage, the disorder is practically no different from a completely understandable love for creative chaos or an unwillingness to part with things dear to the heart.

In the first case, the desktop is littered with necessary and unnecessary papers, unwashed cups and, let's say, apple cores. Well, what did you want? This is a creative process, there is no time to be distracted by cleaning!

In the second, things no longer fit on the shelves of cabinets, but the hand does not rise to throw them away, because this book was presented by the first lover, but in that blouse you went to the sea for the first time ...

But for some people, over time and age, all this is transformed into obsessive behavior - hording.

What exactly causes this transformation, scientists do not yet fully understand. It is only known that hording is often associated with others: loneliness and depression, increased anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (obsessive thoughts).

Also, the development of Plushkin's syndrome is associated The Psychology Behind Hoarding with the following factors:

1. Age. Most often, hording occurs in people over 50 years of age. However, deeper research shows that the passion for hoarding began to manifest in them as early as 11-15 years old.
2. Personality type. Plushkin's syndrome affects people with severe indecision.
3. Heredity. As for this factor, psychologists are not so sure, but they still note some genetic predisposition to the development of pathology. If one of your close relatives littered the house, you have a higher risk of following in his footsteps than others.
4. Psychological trauma. Many Plyushkins have experienced a traumatic event in the past, the consequences of which were not overcome with the help of psychotherapy.
5. social isolation. Most often, people who suffer from loneliness and lack of social recognition become horders. They try to find solace in things.

What causes Plushkin's syndrome

There are quite clear criteria that allow you to say unequivocally: “Stop, this is no longer a passion for creativity and not collecting things that are dear to the heart. It's a pathology."

American researchers have created a scale THE 5 HOARDING LEVELS AND GUIDELINES FOR REECOGNIZING THE DISORDER to assess the severity of the problem.

I level

There is a mess, but not excessive. Access to doors and stairs is free, it is quite easy to move around, there are no unpleasant odors. In general, the dwelling looks a little cluttered, but neat.

II level

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

III level

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

IV level

There is so much rubbish and dirt that it is almost impossible to use the bathroom and bedroom from the point of view of an outsider. There is mold on the walls and floor. There are problems with clogged sewers and electrical wiring.

Level V

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

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

How to recognize Plushkin's syndrome at an early stage

Plyushkin's syndrome should be corrected as soon as 2-3 of the following symptoms appear:

1. Difficulties with cleaning. Creative clutter extends beyond the desktop to other surfaces. Clothes, books, papers, appliances just fall into armchairs or cabinets indiscriminately.
2. Reluctance to throw away the unusable. A holey sweater - nothing, it will come in handy in the country. Scribbled weekly for the year before last - what if I ever need to review it and remember something important?! Broken chair - nothing, one day I'll fix it. An unrepairable TV - let it stand, it can also contain expensive spare parts!
3. Too careful about small things. For example, to a scattering of pebbles brought by children or grandchildren from the sea. Or a dozen children's blouses. Or to an old souvenir like a dove with a broken wing. Above all this, the beginning horder is languishing, like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, not wanting to part and not allowing relatives to throw away things that obviously have served their purpose and are no longer needed.
4. Neglect of hygiene, cleaning, changing linen. In general, this is predictable: when there is too much trash, putting things in order turns into a titanic work.
5. Self-isolation. A person demonstrates a distrustful-hostile attitude towards people, including relatives, and the world around him, strives for loneliness.

How to treat Plushkin's syndrome

Unfortunately, modern science cannot tell how to prevent the disorder: it is not well understood. There is only one option left - to prevent the manifested hording from developing.

It's best to do this with . The specialist will be able to calculate that trigger - psychological trauma, personality type, social isolation, anxiety disorder, - which made a person surround himself with unnecessary things. You may need several consultations and the appointment of antidepressants.

The help of loved ones is also important. Horder is by no means to be blamed. Otherwise, he will go deeper into himself and make the wall of rubbish even more dense.

Plushkin needs warmth and sincere support so that he does not feel lonely and defenseless. In particular, you can help a person clean up from time to time and focus on how light and clean it becomes around, how much easier it is to breathe.

A person who tends to constantly "save" things in reserve experiences great anxiety at the thought that he will have to get rid of these items. Messi syndrome worsens and creates cramped living conditions. Houses filled to capacity with rubbish leave no chance to move freely around the rooms. The accumulation of household waste releases unpleasant odors and toxic substances into the room, which poses a health hazard.

Treatment of Plushkin's Syndrome is difficult because many patients do not see a problem in their lifestyle. On the contrary, if a person is hinted at his unhealthy habit, he will feel offended. If you do not fight Plushkin's disease, it is likely that this disorder will never disappear.

History of the term

Syllogomania - mental disorder found in people all over the world. From Greek words "syllogismos" and mania translated as "reasoning" and "madness". AT different countries pathological hoarding has its own names associated with certain associations. For example, Plyushkin's surname was borrowed from the story Dead Souls. In his work N.V. Gogol portrayed the character as a stingy landowner who did nothing but burden his house with all sorts of rubbish. Abroad, Plyushkin's disease is better known as Messi's syndrome (colloquial jargon), which means "dirty, disorderly" in English.

Stages of pathological hoarding

Hoarding varies from mild to severe stages. There are varieties of hoarding that do not significantly affect our lives. But if the collection of rubbish and household waste occurs on a daily basis, you should be wary. It is better to “cure” your problem right away than to make it worse.

At first, a person accumulates every little thing, then, a harmless love for unnecessary things smoothly turns into the accumulation of furniture, appliances, clothes, and household appliances. And when there is no more room inside the house, the mess is added to the garage, yard and even the car.

Messi's illness completely changes psychological condition. It affects the emotions, thoughts and behavior of a person.

Symptoms and signs of Plushkin Syndrome:

Inability to part with any things regardless of their value


Over-attachment to objects (feeling annoyed when someone else tries to take these things)


Disorder in the living quarters


Accumulation of newspapers and magazines


Untimely cleaning in the house, up to breeding unsanitary conditions


Permanent collection of unnecessary items (household garbage, napkins, bags)

The problem of pathological hoarding has not been fully investigated. Stressful situations and psychological trauma can be one of the causes of the onset of the disease. The tendency to hoarding can also develop against the background of other diseases. For example, dementia, when a person is not able to reasonably assess reality or physical ailments, when there is no way to carefully monitor the order in the house.

Sometimes the habit of hoarding is due to the following reasons:

psychotic disorders (schizophrenia)


obsessive-compulsive disorder


loneliness, single life


deprived childhood (lack of parental attention, gifts)

Risk group prone to disease

Compulsive hoarding can shock anyone, regardless of age, gender or social status.

Risk factors include:

Age. Plyushkin's disease usually begins at 11-15 years of age and progresses even more with adulthood. Already at a young age, children tend to collect wrappers from sweets and any confectionery products, as well as hoard broken toys, old stationery, books and school notebooks.


Character. Chronic indecision can cause pathological hoarding. When a person constantly puts aside some items for certain purposes, but does not realize them, in the future it can turn into a habit of cluttering up the home.


social isolation. People who do not have relationships with others try to brighten up their loneliness and find life comfort in the hoarding of various items.


Other factors in the development of the disease are:

Long life in unsanitary conditions;

Neglect of personal hygiene;

Family conflicts;

Sedentary lifestyle;

Financial difficulties

Varieties of pathological hoarding

Collecting.Collection of expensive or rare "knick-knacks", such as brands or vintage cars, is considered a mild form of psychological disorder. Human collectors deliberately look for specific things and often flaunt them to others. Collecting rarely causes emotional stress and clutter in the home, but there is a risk that this habit can develop into an obsession.


Pathological hoarding of animals. Some people keep dozens of pets in unhygienic conditions because they are unable to properly care for them.


Thirst for knowledge. Tons of books, magazines, newspapers and encyclopedias often clutter up houses and apartments without leaving the residents feeling uncomfortable. Mess becomes the norm, and the desire to part with books that have lost their value does not arise.


Cursing. There is a group of people who are called "hoarders". They tend to accumulate their homes with any material objects, up to and including household garbage.


sentimental hoarding. This type of hoarding is associated with psychological trauma. People who are obsessed with romantic memories are not ready to part with things that were given to them by a loved one in the past.

Possible consequences of such a violation of behavior

Some of the complications and consequences of the disease are:

High risk of fire in the house/apartment.


Problems with the law (complaints from neighbors about an unpleasant smell in a residential building and cluttering up foreign territories with rubbish can lead to litigation).


Inability to perform daily tasks (self-care, housekeeping, caring for others).

How to cure Plushkin's syndrome? Psychologist - the best doctor and assistant in this problem. There are only two types of treatment for pathological hoarding - psychotherapy and drugs.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most common form of psychotherapy. It is designed to help people manage their problems and experiences. Therapy sessions take place in the form of friendly conversations, where the doctor and the patient determine common goals, why the passion for hoarding should be defeated. In the classroom, the doctor explains to the patient why Plushkin's syndrome is dangerous, how to deal with it and recover from this disease. It may take months to reach specific treatment goals.

plushkin syndrome,