While hoarding disorder does lead to serious clutter, hoarders aren't particularly dangerous. However, these individuals do not appreciate being forced to change. If they constantly face pressure to throw out their stuff, they can become very angry and take violent action.
Friends and family members of those who hoard can find it difficult to control their feelings of anger and helplessness. “Hoarding can cause profound distress for family members,” Chasson said. “Lots of frustration, lots of anger, lots of just completely not understanding what's going on and how to help.
Personality. Many people who have hoarding disorder have a behavior style that includes trouble making decisions and problems with attention, organization and problem-solving. Family history. There is a strong association between having a family member who has hoarding disorder and having the disorder yourself.
Also, hoarding can be an avoidance tactic. Throwing things out can trigger intensely painful feelings, so hoarders will prevent this from happening any way they can. A hoarder on a TV show where they are "helping" them declutter will be going through a great deal of pain and will likely exhibit anger.
Some researchers believe hoarding can relate to childhood experiences of losing things, not owning things, or people not caring for you. This might include experiences like: Money worries or living in poverty in childhood. Having your belongings taken or thrown away by someone.
Mental health problems associated with hoarding include: severe depression. psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Don't refer to their possessions as 'junk' or 'rubbish'. This shows that you don't understand their connection to the objects or why they want to keep them. They will be less likely to open up to you if you talk about their things this way. Don't focus on a total clean-up.
Some individuals with hoarding disorder may recognize and acknowledge that they have a problem with accumulating possessions; others may not see a problem.
Conclusions: Hoarding symptoms are associated with increased emotional contagion and decreased cognitive empathy. Empathy may be an avenue for understanding and treating interpersonal difficulties in hoarding disorder.
Being the family member of a person with hoarding disorder (HD) can be very stressful. For those family members who live with the person with HD, such as a partner, child, sibling or dependent parent, living among the extreme clutter can cause a lot of physical and emotional difficulties.
Hoarding often runs in families and can frequently accompany other mental health disorders, like depression, social anxiety, bipolar disorder, and impulse control problems.
A level 3 hoarder will become extremely defensive of their living situation when confronted and often rationalizes their living situation because they cannot see the dangers present within their home. Level 3 hoarding can include the following: Clutter and household items accumulating outside of the home.
Hoarders generally experience embarrassment about their possessions and feel uncomfortable when others see them. Their clutter often takes over functional living space, and they feel sad or ashamed after acquiring additional items.
These results suggest that hoarders' decisions about possessions are hampered by abnormal activity in brain regions used to identify the emotional significance of things. “They lose the ability to make relative judgments, so the decision becomes absolutely overwhelming and aversive to them,” Tolin says.
They just won't find their way out. It's for these reasons, in part, that hoarding is extremely difficult to treat. And hoarding is almost always accompanied by a comorbid condition--depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder are among the most common--which complicates matters even further.
Hoarding gets worse with age, which is why it's often associated with older adults, but it usually starts in childhood.
Hoarders often endure a lifelong struggle with hoarding. They tend to live alone and may have a family member with the problem.
Growing up in a hoarded environment is traumatic. It can not be overstated how difficult it is to live life surrounded by clutter and chaos.
Signs of compulsive hoarding include always having clutter, showing emotional distress disposing of items, not inviting others over, having a shopping addiction, not allowing others to touch or borrow their possessions, having multiple pets, and constantly talking about their collection.
Two of the most common forms are cat hoarding and dog hoarding. However, a person can hoard any animal.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are most commonly used to treat hoarding disorder. A recent meta-analysis shows that treatment response to pharmacotherapy is similar to the response in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
The initial start of hoarding symptoms is thought to happen in childhood or adolescence (typical onset is around age 16) and it is chronic and progressive. Hoarding is more common in older than younger age groups. Below are some early signs that an individual may have hoarding behaviors.
Hoarding often runs in families, but it is uncertain whether DNA is involved. “People with this problem tend to have a first-degree relative who also does,” says Randy O. Frost, Ph. D., a psychologist at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.