Harmful neighbor: who is a querulant

They are very close

The new tenants of the entrance are doing repairs. During the hours specified by law, the walls are drilled a little – in general, a normal process, it would always be so cultural. But every day two grandmothers go to them, who are offended by what is happening. The drill does not have time to buzz, as citizens injured by someone else’s landscaping persistently knock on the door and demand silence at any time of the day. Reveling in suffering, they are not ready to negotiate and discuss what hours they can drill, so as not to disturb them. No, they need not to drill at all.

“Why do you need repairs at all – a woman lived there,” they confidently declare. “Nobody has ever done such a noisy renovation in our house as you.” And now several complaints have already been written to the board of the cooperative, to the prefecture and to Sportloto (whoever remembers Vysotsky’s song will understand). The same people were offended when someone began to store a bicycle in a niche under the stairs – where in the typical layout of our house there is space for strollers, sleds and bicycles. Instantly, the eldest went to the apartments on the porch – to find out who was keeping it, and to ban it.

Do you also have such neighbors? Or maybe social media followers? It is difficult even to imagine at times what quivering strings of their souls can be touched by unsuspecting people.

Meet the Querulans

They are perfectly characterized by the word “complainers” – the literal translation of the term “querulant” from Latin. These are litigants who take pleasure, consciously or unconsciously, from writing complaints and participating in lawsuits in order to fight for their rights and eternally infringed interests. Most often, these violations and infringements occur only in their imagination.

But these people, as a rule, ate a dog on where and how to apply, they are ready to spend time and resources on endless red tape, create queues and go around the thresholds of authorities so that the “offenders”, who sometimes did not intend to offend someone, were punished . Over time, officials who did not satisfy their petitions, and all at once employees of the judicial system, if the complainants lose their cases, are also ranked among the offenders.

Revelry in the network

Naturally, social networks today have become fertile ground for querulants. How many people talk about their lives there and express their own opinions. And there are so many reasons to find how exactly their actions and views on life offend the next quivering complainers, scanning the information space in search of a new excuse to be infringed.

They can be easily calculated in communities, for example, local ones. If you follow the posts and comments, it’s easy to see who will always find something to be offended by. They are changing the old asphalt with potholes on the street for a new one – they are already scribbling indignant comments that it is impossible to get through. The next day, the same userpics flicker under the post with a proposal to feed the yard cats – how can it be, because it is these people who are hindered by basement animals, and in general, let cats catch rats.

And when someone offers tutoring services, it turns out that it is these commentators who “suffer”, that “someone is running around” to the teacher who lives ten floors above. And if, after an art history post with a photo of Venus de Milo, Facebook blocked you indicating that someone’s feelings were hurt, you should know that this is their work.

What are the reasons for such behavior?

So what is it – harmfulness of character or mental illness? As in many other cases, everything depends on the degree of manifestation and isolation from reality. “In my personal practice, I periodically encounter this kind of problem,” says psychotherapist Gurgen Khachaturyan. “I work with people suffering from mental illness, and with those who are faced with querulants.”

Categories of complainants:

1. Immature individuals who know a lot about their rights and have no idea about their responsibilities. Each of us has encountered such people, often at work. For example, young colleagues with an active lifestyle, who know best what is right, but deny that nuances are important in every situation. From the point of view of psychiatry, their behavior cannot be explained by illness, since it is still a problem of immaturity that can be “outgrown”. Most often this happens after such people are fired several times from different jobs due to the inability to get along with the team.

2. People with borderline personality disorder, paranoid psychopathy, and paranoid schizophrenia. For them, a distinctive feature will be the absence of a critical attitude towards such activities. And without treatment of the underlying disease, the symptom of which is querulism, there will be no changes. That is, relatively speaking, they are not retrained.

3. Elderly people with age-related dementia. With the deterioration of cerebral circulation, some mental functions begin to suffer and such a symptom is formed. Those same grandmothers from the story described above most often belong to the latter category. Here, unfortunately, the forecasts are rather sad, because brain functions are difficult to reverse with age-related changes. It is easier to accept and understand that this is an incurable symptom of the disease, and not just harmful.

What is their evil

How do querullants harm society? Actually a lot. For example, they create an unhealthy atmosphere, bring tension. If they are convincing, they can win people over to their side, who would not even think of feeling slighted because of someone’s post, for example. But enough persuasive querullant to throw a seed of doubt, and seedlings sprout. And now your subscribers in heated debates are divided into two camps, ready to throw stones at each other.

They masterfully know how to find something to be offended by. They harm shops, restaurants, hotels, the entire service sector suffers from them. And after the business owners – and customers, ordinary consumers. Large corporations approve all sorts of documents to protect themselves from their lawsuits. I remember the story of how a housewife sued a washing machine manufacturer for not prescribing a ban on washing pets in the instructions.

In addition, their endless circulation of authority takes time and resources from all sorts of officials and from those who really need to address a real, not a far-fetched problem. Moreover, behind the noise screen of their complaints, it is already harder to hear the voice of someone who really needs help.

The Querullants are being fought. For example, in California, a person who is officially recognized as a querulant can be fined, imprisoned, or expelled from the state. Querulantism is destructive, but before you inflame with righteous anger, it is worth understanding what the possible reasons for such behavior are. If this is someone from a close circle, it may be time to think about consulting a specialist.