My son, 19, steals "not all the time." He states that he has a compulsion to steal -- not all the time. He also struggles with a heroin addiction and feels he is bipolar. I have given him names, phone numbers, etc. to get help, but he won't call... Can you explain, in every day language, what is the underlying reason for cleptomania?

Thank you.

He does not necessarily have cleptomania (nice cover up)
That is standard for the addiction
I have seen addicts (crack and heroin)
Steal their grandmother's medication
Shoplift
Sell their parents big screen TV
Steal off other addicts
It's the drugs giving them the compulsion to steal because they need to feed their habit.
They steal it and sell it for enough to get their drug. They don't care that you are still paying on the rental entertainment center and you paid $300. On it and you still have $200. Left to pay on it. They want $40. So they will sell it for 40.
You really can't do anything for him other than tough love --don't give him money, don't make life comfy for him
He has to get to a point where HE wants help.
If you could send him to rehab he would only come out and start all over because it is not in him to want to quit.
I have even seen addicts admit themselves to rehab only to come out and start all over.
I believe they do it just to detox back to the point before they started feeling really sick
So their body would heal enough to handle the drugs again. Not because they wanted to stop their habit.


***edit: IF anybody wants to reply with anything similar to what I already said
DO NOT waste your time!

seascape: What an idiot you are. You probably also reply to people saying they haven't done enough to help someone... Don't waste my time again.

--Yes just like I told you you haven't done enough for his addiction or that you should have been on top of him about his cleptomania.


You make it sound like this "convenient cleptomania" just started with his drug problem rather than something that has been an on going thing all his life. Sorry I don't know anybody that just turns "convenient cleptomanic" over night, especially when you make it sound like it happened coincidentally when or after he started heroin.
The ''not all the time'' is either an excuse or a denial to that he has a problem.
I have never heard of anybody that became an 'occasional cleptomanic" over night.
Maybe you should have defined what cleptomanic means to your understanding?
IF this problem was something on going all his life maybe you should have included that too?
Maybe then you would have seen whether or not I "probably also reply to people saying they haven't done enough to help someone."