Did you know that hoarding is the reason for 25% of home fires? This was revealed by an academic study conducted in Canberra. Hoarding is a mental condition that should not be taken lightly as it affects not only the hoarder but their family as well. Moreover, it not only impedes one's everyday life, but can also lead to psychiatric disorders and even death.
What is a Hoarding Disorder?
A hoarding disorder involves the compulsive hoarding of items, which often have little or no value. Hoarders often fill their homes to capacity with an assortment of objects (often trash and debris), while also hoarding clutter within their own home. A hoarding disorder can lead to physical and emotional problems for the hoarder, as well as their family members who have been affected by their behaviour.
People with hoarding disorder are unable to discard items, even the ones that they don't really use or even know exist in their house. This causes the inside of their homes to become cluttered with useless possessions, making it difficult for people to function in daily life. What's more, this compulsive personality disorder poses a major health risk in homes. A hoarder's home is a safety hazard, especially for children. It is unsurprisingly infested with pests, and it can easily catch fire, resulting in the deaths of everyone living in it.
A hoarding disorder is considered a mental illness because hoarding often leads to extreme emotional distress and can have a major impact on an individual's day-to-day life. What's worse, individuals with hoarding disorder are at risk of suffering from other mental health conditions as well as physical problems. In many cases, hoarding can be linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which affects more than 500,000 people in Australia.
Why Do People Hoard Things they Don't Need?
Individuals with hoarding disorder generally start hoarding things they don't need in childhood, usually in their pre-teens. The hoarding behaviour often becomes worse in adulthood. People who suffer from hoarding disorder generally report feeling better if they can save the hoarded items and refuse to get rid of them, for fear that they may need them one day or become sad by their loss.
Signs of hoarding range from mild clutter to complete breakdowns in sanitation and safety. Additionally, the consequences of hoarding include trouble with thinking about the future and expressing one's emotions properly. Homes affected by hoarding are typically so cluttered that getting from one point to another is an ordeal. The rooms cannot be accessed without walking over the hoarded items, causing the person responsible for all of the excessive clutter, and everyone else in their household, to trip, fall or become injured.
What are the Signs of a Hoarding Disorder?
Individuals with a hoarding disorder suffer from functional impairment and are incapable of enjoying active living, what with all of the clutter strewn across every surface and nook and cranny. Most of them also suffer from cognitive impairment, if not disorientation. Often, they have trouble organizing and sorting through their possessions, resulting in a lack of storage space. In addition to this, many hoarders also have poor insight and problems with thinking about the future and dealing with practical concerns such as paying bills or keeping appointments.
The symptoms of hoarding do not develop overnight, so if you suspect that you or a loved one is becoming a hoarder, be on the lookout for the following signs:
- Excessive accumulation of items that have little or no value
- Inability to part with hoarded items, even if they have no use to anyone anymore
- Piles large amounts of clutter until the room is filled to the brim
- Suffers emotional distress at the thought of discarding unused things
- Disorganised
- Frequently procrastinates
- Unable to practise good personal hygiene
- Lives in unsanitary conditions
- Inability to perform daily tasks
A hoarding problem is often accompanied by other psychotic disorders such as depression, social anxiety disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Gender is one of the risk factors for hoarding disorder. Studies show that this type of mental health condition affects more women than men.
People who are addicted to the accumulation of possessions, regardless of their value, will often say that they can not part with their possessions because they believe the items have sentimental value or that these things still have use to them. People with hoarding disorder may also feel a sense of sadness, shame and embarrassment when it comes to letting go of hoarded objects.
What Causes a Hoarding Disorder?
Compulsive hoarding is a complex mental health issue that has been linked to the following:
- Genetics
- Stressful life event
- Environmental factors
Most people with hoarding disorder have experienced a major life event, such as the death of a family member or their spouse, which caused the hoarding behaviour. Other adults with hoarding disorder spoke of growing up witnessing their own parents filling their living space to capacity with items they collect or feel compelled to save.
How Can You Help Someone with a Hoarding Disorder?
Because hoarding is a mental illness, people with hoarding disorder often do not seek help on their own. It is often a family member, through the mediation of a mental health professional, such as a psychologist, social worker or counsellor, who encourages them to get treatment.
Families and friends who don't understand the behaviour of their loved ones with hoarding disorders find it difficult to get through to them. Although they can motivate hoarding individuals to improve their quality of life through appropriate treatment, the latter must be willing to accept treatment first.
What is the Best Treatment Option for a Hoarding Disorder?
People suffering from hoarding disorders can be helped with various treatment methods such as cognitive-behavioural therapy alongside conventional medications. During treatment, the hoarder is taught to overcome their problems by learning to organise hoarded items, discarding hoarded items and properly storing hoarded items.
A hoarding disorder treatment is done in a gradual manner to ensure that the patient progresses from one stage of hoarding disorder treatment to another without experiencing undue anxiety or stress at each step. It is important to understand the story behind their behaviour, as most hoarders acquire multiple types of objects such as clothing, food, scrap materials, etc.
The treatment can be very effective if the hoarding individual is willing to take responsibility for their hoarding problems and work towards improving their mental health.
As it's considered to be one of the world's serious mental disorders, hoarding is a real problem that can wreak havoc on a person's life and destroy their relationships with families and friends. Fortunately, there are many resources and treatment options available, whether you're a person who hoards or a loved one of a person who does.
