Dromomania is a mental disorder. The manifestation of this disease is that a person experiences an irresistible desire to leave or run away from his home. The patient has a compulsion to leave the familiar environment and go into the unknown. At the same time, the patient does not want to see beautiful new places, but simply wants to escape the familiar world.
Key Features
Dromomania is a disease that must be taken seriously. A person suffering from this disease is able to leave his family or quit his job in order to go anywhere. The first case of escape can be triggered by various psychological traumas or stressful situations. But if the pathology continues to develop, then the patient finds various, sometimes completely insignificant reasons for wandering. Although dromomania most often affects children, adults can also be affected by this strange disease. Doctors have recorded frequent cases in which the very first signsdiseases in humans appeared in childhood and continued throughout life.
The brightest example in history
Dromomania is not a new disease. Cases of this disease have been reported hundreds of years ago. A Frenchman named Jean-Albert Dada is the most prominent example of a person with this mental disorder. He lived in the city of Bordeaux, which is located in France, and worked as an ordinary gas welder. In 1886, Jean-Albert was taken to the hospital. As it turned out, he wandered for several years. The patient arrived at the clinic in poor condition. He was very exhausted and could not remember what had happened to him. During his wanderings, the Frenchman even managed to visit several countries of the world. After this incident, a real boom of dromomania began. Jean-Albert Dada himself has gained a large following.
Impulsive behavior is the first sign of illness
Dromomania is a disorder that at first glance may seem like a simple desire to get some fresh air or go fishing. But there are several signs that indicate the presence of the disease. The first one is impulsivity. The patient may have a sudden desire to "rest". For relatives and close friends, such behavior seems absurd. The patient may completely forget that he planned anything, and leave the house without telling anyone. Cases of pathological impulsivity are expressed in the fact that the patient is able to abruptly quit the business or even eating, get together andleave the house.
Indifference is the second feature of the disease
Dromomania is a serious mental disorder that is best recognized at an early stage. The patient is completely unprepared for his future "journey". At the same time, a person does not think about the possible consequences of his departure. He can leave his family and go nowhere at all without having the finances for a later life of wandering. He doesn't worry about planning his trip. Such an irresponsible attitude to details can cause a lot of trouble for the patient. Many cases are known when people who left home were starving, freezing, and going astray. Dromomania sufferers will never take with them the necessary warm clothes, food, map, money and other important things while traveling.
Irresponsible attitude is the last symptom
A person suffering from the described disease does not worry about an abandoned workplace, an unfinished task, or unfed children. He does not realize that his departure can cause irreparable damage to someone. The patient does not tell anyone about his intentions to escape from the familiar world, since he himself did not know about his plans a few seconds ago. Cases have been recorded when a patient with dromomania woke up in the middle of the night, got dressed and left the house without informing any of his relatives about his sudden decision.
How does the patient describe his feelings?
Dromomania is an attraction disorder that manifests itself in an obsessive desire to leave yourhome and change the boring environment. From Greek, the term is translated as "mania of running." A person has an urgent need to leave the environment, which for some reason exerts strong emotional pressure on him. Often the patient describes his experiences as disturbing. He experiences mental discomfort and cannot find a place for himself in his house. These sensations subside only during a trip or wandering. When anxiety completely disappears, a person begins to realize the absurdity of his rash act and returns home. A more severe form of this disease is prolonged wandering, in which the patient simply moves forward as long as he has strength and he alth. At the same time, the process of escaping is important for a person, and not the destination.
Causes of disorder in children
Dromomania is most often diagnosed in children and adolescents. The constant escapes of the child can be provoked by various reasons, both expected and completely unexpected. The reason for the next departure from home can be a bad attitude of parents, an exorbitant study load, emotional instability of the child, as well as obsessions, which are most often evoked by books and films about wanderings.
Sources of disease in adults
Dromomania in adults does not necessarily have a predisposition in childhood. Women and men in adulthood who experience a strong desire to quit may have good reasons for leaving home. Most oftenimpulsive and reckless behavior of patients is provoked by severe stress, nervous breakdown or overwork. The reason for the development of dromomania can also be strong emotional pressure from relatives or friends. If the situation that influenced the patient's behavior is not corrected, then later, if any life problem arises, the person will run away from home constantly. Sometimes this disorder can be the result of diseases such as psychopathy or obsessive-compulsive disorder. OCD and dromomania are closely related, as people with these diseases have abnormal activity in the temporal regions of the brain.
Stages of development of dromania
The first case of running away from home is often the result of some severe stress or conflict situations with family or friends. At this stage, it is not difficult for a person to quickly recover and return home. In the second stage of the development of the disease, the patient finds the only, as it seems to him, the right way to avoid family problems or work conflicts. For him, vagrancy becomes a familiar response to all unpleasant situations. At this stage, a person's wanderings can be very long in time and lead to deep depressions. The syndrome of dromomania in the third stage already has a clinical character. The patient is practically unable to control his actions and overcome the pathological craving for impulsive escapes from the familiar environment.
How to deal withillness?
Dromomania is a mental disorder in which a person has an obsession with leaving their home. The patient may have an overwhelming desire to get away from the habitual, so it is very important to recognize the symptoms of the disease at an early stage. Basically, people resort to the help of qualified psychologists, since it is extremely difficult to cope with this problem alone. Often, the patient is prescribed antidepressants, which help to quickly overcome the anxiety state. To prevent dromomania, doctors advise not to keep negative emotions in oneself, but to discuss with loved ones everything that can cause internal discomfort. To strengthen the nervous system, it is important to exercise every day. Morning or evening jogging will serve as a good antidepressant.
