Some customers new to hoarding call us and say something like “okay just clear the space, make the problem go away”. Nothing will probably be further from the truth. Hoarding causes, symptoms and treatment are all intertwined. In a sense, the one feeds off the other and you need to tackle them all.
Why Is Hoarding a Problem in Society?
Hoarders are probably happy as Harry and Hilda living in their chaos. It’s the rest of us that have the problem in their minds, and they are not in a mood to change for us. However over time, their inability to throw things away becomes a problem.
What was once an untidy pile in a cupboard grows to a heap of junk in a guest room, and so the signs roll out. Health Line explains this can lead to unhealthy, even physically unsafe living conditions. Family interrelationships can fracture too. If only we had spotted the warning signs earlier, they may say to each other.
When Hoarding Symptoms Call for Treatment
Believe or not, there is order in the apparent chaos. Hoarding is a listed condition, and there has been much research done already. These are the five classic signs in the literature, although they may not roll out in this order:
- Some signs of clutter but nothing to disturb us really.
- Domestic standards of hygiene begin to deteriorate.
- The accumulation begins to take over parts of the home.
- The entire home degenerates into disorganized chaos.
- There is no usable living space left, but is it too late?
Hoarding is a Broad Canvas and Hard to Pin Down
Hoarding causes symptoms, but treatments vary from person to person. That’s because hoarding is the outward sign of a state of mind, and no two of us are the same. But there are common themes though, and in fact hoarding appears as a disorder in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Even so, there is no single reason why hoarders follow the same identifiable path. They may begin to accumulate things because they believe they are still useful. But they could just as well retain them because they remind them of someone, or something they do not want to forget.
An affection grows stronger between the hoarder and their collection. They may quite often abandon their own personal space to accommodate their things. This is why it may be so emotionally dangerous to force the issue, call in a cleaner and throw everything into a skip.
Common Indicators Predicting Hoarding Disorder
There are some common signs associated with hoarding, although there is little irrefutable proof that the one may cause the other, on a one-to-one basis:
- Difficult upbringing, disorganized childhood home, living alone.
- Anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and high stress levels.
- Suffering from depression, dementia, obsessive compulsive disorder.
- Living with obsessive compulsive personality disorder, schizophrenia.
People with an inclination towards hoarding may also insist on categorizing things, but have difficulty paying attention and making decisions.
People With Hoarding Symptoms Need Treatment
Compulsive hoarding, or hoarding beyond a person’s direct control, can develop at any stage of their life. Age, gender, and ethnicity are not necessarily discriminators either. Although the condition is three-times more likely to develop in those older than 55 years of age.
That said though, the causes of hoarding, the symptoms, and the need for treatment may also appear among adolescents. However, the impact is generally milder, and less distressing as long as they live with parents or carers.
Is It Possible to Treat Hoarding Disorder?
Hoarding is like so many other things in life. That is, we only do something about them when they become a real problem. And by that token hoarding may have become the ‘new normal’ in the mind of the hoarder, so we can expect them to resist change when we wake up to it. Therefore, any treatment must focus on the individual, not on what we want them to do.
Here we must tread lightly since we are not medical providers and may not offer medical advice. Suffice it to say you must consult a doctor, who may refer a hoarder to a cognitive behavioural therapist for advice. They may in turn help them identify and influence thought patterns, but there we must leave it for now.
Get Sympathetic Service from Avery Associates
Avery Associates provides a home clearance service for people who are moving on for whatever reason. They may be decluttering or relocating, or even have passed on. Professional valuers oversee our cleaning teams. We sometimes stumble over items of exceptional value, where nobody else may have thought to look.
