Hoarding is a medical condition characterized by a compulsion to save items regardless of their intrinsic or monetary value. Individuals amass items in excess, resulting in piles or boxes stacked high throughout homes or storage units. The clutter overwhelms spaces and impacts health, safety, finances, and personal relationships.
Medical professionals categorize hoarding disorder based on the level of severity, with level one correlating to low levels of dysfunctional organization and level five implicating the most serious hoarding compulsions. Family members and friends of individuals who suffer from hoarding disorder often struggle to understand the compulsion. Why do people hoard?
Table of Contents:
What Is Hoarding?
Examples of Hoarding
Types of Hoarding
Food Hoarding
Animal Hoarding
Causes of Hoarding and Cluttering
Narcissism and Hoarding
Hoarding and Dementia
Autism and Hoarding
Trauma, Grief, Heredity, and Hoarding
Help for Hoarding
FAQ: About Hoarding
Key Takeaways:
Conditions like dementia, autism, and narcissism could increase the risk of hoarding compulsions. However, some individuals hoard to cope with grief or as a result of trauma.
What is Hoarding? The Difference Between Collecting and Hoarding
Hoarding disorder is not synonymous with collecting. The difference between "collectors" and individuals who suffer from hoarding disorder relates to the organization and understanding of the items collected (or amassed). Collectors understand the history and value of the items they acquire, and they often display these items in an organized manner. For example, collections are often displayed in glass cases, on shelves, or within protected books designed to showcase the collection (e.g., stamps, coins, or baseball cards).
Individuals suffering from hoarding disorders lack a defined and cohesive methodology for their collections. Hoarding disorder compels the individual to save items, often completely disregarding value, meaning, rarity, or functionality.
Those who suffer from hoarding disorder collect items ranging from simple pieces of paper to animals. Piles often feature a mixture of items, indicating a lack of true organization or focus. The meaning of each saved item lies in the mind of the affected individual. As the impetus for hoarding varies, the compulsion that drives the collection also varies. Some individuals who suffer from hoarding disorder simply do not understand which items to keep and feel compelled to save every item. Others, though, save items in response to the grief of a lost loved one.
Examples of Hoarding
What does hoarding look like? Hoarding intrinsically impacts one or more areas of an individual's life. Collections morph into hoarding when items transform into clutter that threatens personal safety, the property's structural integrity, personal relationships, and financial independence or results in legal strife.
A definitive litmus test for hoarding currently does not exist in the medical field. However, professionals who work to remediate hoarding situations understand that this disorder reveals itself in numerous physical manifestations.
Types of Hoarding
There are numerous types of hoarding, although not all hoarding disorders focus on amassing items that adhere to one category. Again, some individuals collect seemingly random items like jars, paper, pieces and parts, and other items. However, others with hoarding disorder feel compelled to hoard something specific.
Food Hoarding
Hoarding food was popular during Covid when many consumers feared food would become scarce. They packed their carts with canned goods and other nonperishables. The drive and compulsion did not always dissipate once the pandemic ended.
Food hoarding also can be tied to an eating disorder. Individuals who have bulimia could suffer from a preoccupation with food.
In addition, individuals who grew up in a food insecure home or in severe poverty also could develop a need to hoard food. This hoarding is a type of survival response, developing out of fear of possible starvation.
Animal Hoarding
Hoarding animals often leads to devastating consequences. This type of hoarding results in individuals adopting or purchasing more animals than they can physically and financially support. Neglected animals urinate and defecate throughout the house, are often malnourished, and lack proper veterinary care.
Animal hoarding is a health and safety emergency. When an individual suspects an animal hoarding situation, emergency response is crucial for the health and well-being of the animals. The majority of animal hoarding incidents involve women over the age of 40.
Causes of Hoarding and Cluttering
Hoarding and extreme clutter often coexist with other mental health disorders or diagnoses. Elderly individuals with dementia often hoard because their mind simply does not understand what to keep and what to discard. In addition, items could become a source of comfort for them. Narcissistic personality disorder and autism diagnosis also could lead to hoarding tendencies, although not all individuals with autism hoard.
Narcissism and Hoarding
In an article titled "Narcissism and Materialism: A Match Made In Hell," Liz Stillwaggon Swan, PhD, explored the link between narcissistic personalities and needing to acquire "things" to be perceived as valuable. Swan compared narcissists to black holes, engulfing everything to fill a void.
Swan posits: "I do believe it's a fundamental need to try and fill up with stuff, to counter that deep-seated feeling of emptiness that comes from not having a sense of self or any self-awareness…."
Jon Rhodes also discussed the link between hoarding and narcissism. He theorizes that narcissists might hoard for unique reasons like control and a feeling that cleaning is a task that must be delegated to someone else. Essentially, some narcissists feel that cleaning and organizing is demeaning to them, thus they just don't do it. Rhodes also explains that some narcissists collect ""trophies,"" or items related to a relationship.
Hoarding and Dementia
Women over the age of 40 are the most frequent demographic of hoarding disorder. For some of these sufferers, a diagnosis of dementia might lead to a compulsion to hoard. As dementia impacts memory and cognition, individuals might be unable to discern items of importance. They may take comfort in saving everything or simply save everything because they do not know how to organize properly.
Hoarding also is common for those suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's disease because the act of hoarding allows the individual "...to have some control of their situation. They may feel they need to stockpile items." This control is not real, but hoarding simply satiates the feeling that amassing and saving items provides security.
The Alzheimer's Association discusses how loved ones should work with a family member or friend who is hoarding. The Association explains that hoarding often begins in the beginning or middle stages of dementia, and it's often used as a coping mechanism. Managing the compulsion requires care and compassion; the Association explains that collections should be organized to maximize safety.
According to the Association: "In most cases, removing all clutter can cause severe emotional upset, and it is usually not beneficial to remove everything that a person hoards."
Autism and Hoarding
An individual diagnosed with autism also could feel compelled to collect items. Autism Speaks addresses the issue of autism and hoarding. Individuals with autism might collect items that interest them. They also could have difficulty assessing items of importance from items that lack value.
Hoarding also can help calm and make the individual feel less stressed. Autism Speaks recommends parents talk to the individual about the collecting habit better to understand the thoughts and feelings behind the items. In some cases, additional help could be necessary.
Trauma, Grief, Heredity and Hoarding
Individuals who suffered past trauma or abuse could turn to hoarding as a means to control their environment. Grief also could lead to an individual being unable to part with possessions from a lost loved one. For individuals suffering from past trauma or those dealing with grief, hoarding serves as a coping mechanism.
Hoarding also can be hereditary. Hoarding compulsions often are linked to OCD or other mental health conditions that are inherited. If a parent suffers from hoarding disorder, a child also could suffer from this condition. However, experts emphasize that genetics are one component of a larger puzzle.
Help for Hoarding
The International Hoarding Alliance provides resources for individuals and professionals who need help remediating a hoarding situation. Use the IHA directory to find experts in hoarding remediation, court-appointed witnesses, advocates, and more.
FAQ: About Hoarding
What are the five levels of hoarding?
Clinicians classify hoarding disorder on a severity scale of level 1 to level 5. Individuals who are level one may struggle with disorganization and clutter, but the compulsion does not yet threaten health or other aspects of the individual's life. Those who suffer from level 5 hoarding cannot control their compulsion, which impacts and threatens all aspect of their lives. Level 5 hoarding requires urgent remediation.
Which age demographic is most impacted by hoarding compulsions?
Sources vary in terms of stats related to susceptibility to the disorder. Some sources note that women aged 40+ are the largest demographic group affected by hoarding, but others state that men and women are impacted equally. However, most indicate that older individuals (55+) are more often affected by hoarding disorder.
How does disorganization differ from hoarding?
The difference between disorganization and hoarding is the impact on health, finances, personal relationships, and home safety. An unclean home might look unkempt but does not necessarily lead to a safety or health concern. Hoarding eventually threatens health, safety, financial security, and relationships, and the compulsion can even lead to legal issues (like eviction!).
How many individuals suffer from hoarding?
According to the International OCD Foundation, hoarding affects around 2 to 6 percent of the population.
Comments