how do I bring up kleptomania to my therapist?!


Question: How do I bring up kleptomania to my therapist?
I'm on a waiting list to see a therapist (for the first time in 5 years) it is for people in poverty and no insurance etc so it's a pretty long list and I might not get to see her til next month

anyway, I am diagnosed with anxiety and have been taken medication for 5 years

but when I was talking to my doctor who is the one that told me about this therapist, I just started telling him all these issues I've been having and things I do to alleviate my anxiety.

aside from pulling my hair, I also steal things, and have been doing it for years.

I don't shoplift or steal things for personal gain or for money. I steal useless items just to have them. and I collect and hoard things. I steal stuff like paperclips, rubber bands, pens and pencils, crayons, magnets, sticky notes.

I always feel extreme guilt when I steal things and I will either a) put it back sometime later or b) ask someone if I can have it.

I don't feel comfortable talking about this to anyone. should I just stay quiet about it? my family already thinks I'm nuts because I pull my hair.

Answers:

Print this Q & A for your therapist:

Focus on the feelings you were experiencing when you felt the urge, and immediately following. One reason people do it is because they feel deprived, either materially, or emotionally, and use the acquisition of things in an attempt to make up for it. It doesn't work.

Use the relaxation methods at http://www.drcoxconsulting.com/managing-… or http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/mindbody…
or www.wikihow.com/Meditate and/or Tai Chi, Qi Gong, or yoga.

Some people are still dismissive of them, but scientific testing has demonstrated conclusively that they increase activity in the left prefrontal cortex, when practised regularly, and will enable you to centre yourself emotionally, and find a way of being; awareness, without suffering, when you need it, and is a valuable means of helping you through the worst parts of life.

Another reason is for the thrill; the risk of getting caught. Find other, legal, yet relatively safe sources. Abseiling, paintballing, go karting, skateboarding, etc.

Hypnosis is merely a heightened state of suggestibility, in which you are better able to communicate with your subconscious mind. 85% of people are suggestible to some degree; 15% - 20% highly so, and 15% - 20% aren't much at all, so you could either preferably seek professional hypnotherapy, or, if not an option, hypnosisdownloads.com has one about overcoming kleptomania.
~~~
In your case, you also have an anxiety spectrum disorder; trichotillomania (how do the hair pulling and stealing interact; do you do the latter to stop the former, or vice versa, as a result, to deal with guilt?). I have a weblink that I believe may well provide further help, (about hair pulling) but if I include it here, this answer may be removed by Y!A for promoting a personal website with no direct relevance to the actual question asked, so email me if interested; also ask for my long post about overcoming guilt.



hello therapist. i think i have kleptomania what do you think?



Take your therapist's watch.



Say all that to your therapist.



you have to tell this to your therapist. openness and honesty is the only way to get well. my therapist as well as my psychiatrist made a promise to me and made me make one to them that said that they would be open and honest with me but i had to do the same with them in order to be helped. we all three have kept that promise and i am getting better due to it. if you want to get well and stop stealing then you have to tell your therapist about your stealing. it is the only way to stop it. there is a reason that we as humans do the things that we do and if you keep this to yourself you will never know the why and you will remain sick. and yes it is a sickness. believe me your therapist has heard a lot worse than that from his/her clients.

personal experience.




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