Noah’s Ark syndrome is an obsessive-compulsive disorder, sufferers do not resist the temptation to accumulate animals at home, they can be animals of different species (although they are usually dogs or cats), of the same species, abandoned, bought etc.
In both cases, it seems that the fundamental criterion for diagnosing Noah’s Ark syndrome is to accumulate more animals than can be treated properly.
- The name of this pathology was invented by the National Institute of the United States and is considered a growing social problem.
- Its origin is not well established.
- Although it is true that.
- In many cases.
- People who suffer it begin to have impulses of accumulation after a great loss (death of a relative or emotional crisis.
- Etc.
- ).
The reason for this behavior always has to do with the need to protect animals, without being aware that this can have negative consequences.
It is estimated that 4% of the population suffers from these types of problems. Images of accumulated people (garbage, objects, animals, etc. ) evoke feelings of loneliness, isolation and emotional need, just think of the image of a person surrounded by cats.
This disorder is more common in adults and the elderly who feel alone or abandoned and suffer from lack of affection, animals meet precisely this need for affection and connection, because they become our companions.
What seems true is that in 25% of these cases there is a compulsive obsessive psychological decompensation that somehow causes significant personal or social harm to the person, although this syndrome is not yet recognized as mental illness by diagnostic classification systems and has not been studied with the necessary depth, the strong comorability of this type of mood disorder requires a correct and thorough assessment to differentiate Diseases.
In addition, once the problem has been diagnosed and defined, it is recommended to define a specific treatment in terms of individual psychological and pharmacological therapy to ensure a positive prognosis.