Most people enjoy traveling. This is a great opportunity to change the usual atmosphere for a while, refresh emotions, get impressions, relax. And this is completely normal. People usually plan such trips in advance, think over, choose a destination, wait for a vacation, and are looking forward to everything new that they have to see.
But there are people who hit the road impulsively, experiencing a pathological craving for a change of place and vagrancy. A mental disorder that makes a person act this way is called dromomania.
What it is?
Dromomania is a manic, irresistible attraction to a change of place. This disease has several names - poromania, wagon bondage. Dromans are capable of not only spontaneously leaving home and wandering around, but also leaving the country and flying to another continent. It all depends on the actual capabilities.
As a symptom, dromomania occurs in various mental illnesses. Most often develops with psychopathic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia. But sometimes dromomania occurs as a localized mental disorder. At a certain point in life (in childhood and adolescence), moderate dromomania is common to almost everyone - Who in his youth did not dream of going around the world or circling the world in a balloon?
Some leave home to make dreams come true, then they are caught and returned to their parents.
And to a certain extent, dromomania, manifested in this form at this age, is considered a normal stage in the development of the human psyche. The pathological desire for vagrancy is formed when a person sets off on an unconscious path, without prior planning, impulsively. Mania from childhood can persist in adults.
The attraction is so strong that a person cannot control it. Neither the presence of young children, nor the obligation to employees at work, household members, or any other life circumstances can stop the dromoman who has gathered on the road. At the same time, he has no clear and convincing motivation. He himself does not know why and where he needs to go, but he goes, because he cannot do otherwise.
Modern psychiatrists attribute the disease to the number of depressive-manic disorders.
In the International Classification of Dromomania Diseases, the code F-91 is assigned (this is a behavior disorder), sometimes doctors classify the pathology according to the F-21.4 code according to the ICD (psycho-like, slightly progressive schizophrenia).
The disease has been well studied and has been known for a long time. Many famous people suffered from a craving for vagrancy. The first official dromomaniac was a locksmith from Bordeaux, Jean-Albert Dada, who was hospitalized in 1886. Doctors managed to establish that a man has been traveling in different cities and countries for several years without a visible goal. According to the locksmith's medical history, the first description of the craving for vagrancy was compiled.
This disorder was inherent in the Russian and Soviet writer Maxim Gorky.
As a child, he ran away from home more than once, and then it just became a habit. At the same time, Gorky himself was at a loss to explain where, why, and why he had suddenly left. It is known that his father also suffered from this mental pathology.
Why does the disorder occur?
Dromomania is most common in children and adults with mental disabilities. It is possible, of course, that the craving for a change of place may simply be a character trait, a feature of temperament, but experience shows that dromomancers are most often mentally ill. Doctors tend to believe that the ailment is formed under the following circumstances:
- there are organic brain lesions after injuries, concussions, neuroinfections, hemorrhages and other vascular pathologies;
- a person develops schizophrenia, hysterical disorder, obsessive-compulsive syndrome.
- there is a diagnosed epilepsy.
Teenage craving for running away from home and vagrancy is often false, that is, not directly related to these reasons, not supported by them. A child can collect a bundle and go on a long journey with the following factors:
- excessive loads that are imposed on him by parents, school, sections;
- a categorical unwillingness to comply with the requirements of adults, to be responsible for cleaning the house, walking animals, caring for younger brothers and sisters;
- difficult psychological and emotional atmosphere of the house, constant conflicts;
- the desire to establish itself in the eyes of peers by leaving home declaring its independence from parents, teachers, senior mentors;
- rich imagination, which paints beautiful pictures of distant lands after watching films, books read.
It should be noted that all these reasons are not directly related to mental health and usually dromomaniac children are mostly mentally healthy.
Unfortunately, this cannot be said of adult wanderers, most of whom have mental problems.
Dromans are usually quite infantile people, despite the fact that they can be 30, 40, or more years. The true dromoman does not understand what exactly is calling him on the road, he does not care where to go, go, fly or swim.
Symptoms
The disease has its stages, they are sequential, and with careful observation it will not be difficult to understand what exactly the dromoman will do next. But let's start with the development of the disease.
Usually, the first departure from home occurs precisely in adolescence and the reason can be any that is typical for a teenager. So starts the reactive phase of the disorder. It does not last long: after wandering for a couple of days, taking a sip of freedom and new experiences, a person returns home, and outwardly his life continues to take its course. But the main thing is happening inside: he is already beginning to understand that leaving is a universal way to solve all conflicts, strange situations, and avoid uncomfortable attacks from others. In general, he admits for himself that if something happens, he will calmly leave to "walk" for another couple of days.
The next stage is called fixative. A few short exits from home and a habit is formed to act that way. Whatever happens - a serious problem or a minor (a button comes off, you need to prepare for the exam, quarreled with a neighbor), a person sees only one way out - to escape from the problem to hell, and this brings him relief.
Gradually, the desire to wander around becomes irresistible and uncontrollable, and thoughts become obsessive. Attacks become more frequent, along with them escapes from the house become more frequent.
The final stage, after which the disease is fully formed, is characterized by frequent leaving the house. A person ceases to appropriately perceive his condition, desire takes precedence over him every time, and gradually he ceases to struggle with it. There is nothing more important. A person cannot be stopped by the understanding that at home he leaves some little ones, feeble elderly relatives who cannot take care of themselves.
It is not difficult to distinguish a real dromoman from a simple travel lover, you just need to carefully watch him. Signs of a mental disorder are fairly common:
- a person has no sense of responsibility for anyone, for nothing;
- he never warns relatives, friends, relatives, work colleagues about his sudden departure;
- attacks happen suddenly - a person does not disappear after some events, without being tied to conflicts, problems, he does it just like that, spontaneously;
- a person never takes important personal items with him on the road, for example, removable underwear, money, documents;
- the dromomaniac has no plan - he plunges into an attack and does not know where he will lead him, he does not plan anything, he does not look for points on the map where he will go, he does not buy tickets in advance, he does not book hotels.
Due to the fact that a person goes on the road in what he was without money and documents, often people with such a disorder have to wrestle at train stations, airports, river marinas, asking for money from passers-by.
What drives a dromomaniac?
Obsessive thoughts are excruciating, they do not give rest, deprive sleep, appetite. Relief comes only when a person goes on a journey. The journey will not be endless. As soon as the attack passes, dromomancers return home or get in touch with relatives with a request to help them return, if it is impossible to do it yourself.
Patients themselves almost do not give an account of the disease, they are not self-critical, consider themselves completely healthy. Therefore, there is no point in waiting until a person turns to a specialist. Relatives, friends and colleagues should help him. Otherwise, if there is no treatment, the consequences can be dire: a variety of people can meet along the way.
Given some general infantilism of the dromomaniac, they can easily make friends with alcoholics, drug addicts and, accordingly, share their interests and passions.
Long attacks are fraught with infectious ailments, colds, frostbite, because in light clothing a person who has left in the fall will freeze in winter.
During an attack, a person has no need to wash, wash clothes, and therefore many dromomancers return after a long absence with scabies, head lice, reduced immunity, mental exhaustion on the verge of complete insanity.
It is important to know that in the midst of an attack, the dromoman is quite aggressive, and therefore the consequences can be unpleasant not only for him, but also for others. Not understanding what he is doing, a person can hit, rob, rape. In a state of attack, according to the general opinion of psychiatrists, patients are socially dangerous.
The so-called erotic dromomania deserves special attention. This desire to wander around and at the same time satisfy their erotic needs with random companions, unfamiliar people.
An aggressive form is especially dangerous for others, in which the patient does not wait for the voluntary consent of an outsider to have sexual contact. He's just raping. Outside of travel, such people lead a rather modest life, do not seek sexual partners, since erotic dromomania do not arise with the sedentity of sexual desires.
How to get rid?
If we are talking about a child or teenager who 1-2 times escaped from home, treatment is not required, but you need to visit a psychologist and find out the true reasons why the child leaves. Adults with a painful craving for a change of place without fail need treatment in a psychiatric hospital. If there is no concomitant schizophrenia, psychopathy, then you can get by with a course of psychotherapy using antidepressants and sometimes tranquilizers.
In the presence of basic mental illnesses, the treatment is carried out by a psychiatrist. It is a complex with medicinal and psychotherapeutic effects.
About five unusual mental disorders see below.
