We share secrets about hoarding you may not know yet. Your search is a deep one, for it touches on psychology and neuroscience in ways few people understand.
So please relax while we share six unusual and really interesting insights about hoarding, which go beyond the common understanding of clutter. At the end of this article you should have a better understanding of what the drivers really are.
Insight One: Glancing Into a Hoarder’s Brain
The first of the secrets about hoarding reveals the roles of the anterior cingulate cortex, and the insula regions. These two areas deep down in our brains become hyperactive, when a hoarder considers discarding some of their possessions. The hoarder’s brain literally overvalues objects:
- The anterior cingulate cortex factors in the emotional and rational aspects of decision making.
- While the insula brings internal bodily sensations like heartbeats into play, to create a sense of right or wrong.
- In the case of a hoarder, the deciding factor could be a sudden surge of sensations of anxiety and indecision.
But this ‘value tagging’ system may malfunction in some hoarders, resulting in them attaching even more value to trivial objects most of us regard as junk.
Insight Two: Hoarding Is a Search For Identity
There is solid proof that hoarding is all about identity, not greed or sheer laziness. Our possessions – take our homes and cars for example – provide a sense of identity and pride.
A hoarder’s clutter, likewise, becomes an extensions of their self. It follows that shedding clutter can feel like losing part of history or even personality. One study went as far as saying that hoarders store emotions and experiences in their possessions.
More Secrets of Hoarding and Identity
Another study unpicking the secrets about hoarding concluded that the habit compensates for the unreliability and unpredictability of human relationships. This could be why decluttering can provoke distress akin to grief, not just a feeling of inconvenience.
Insight Three: Historical Attachment to Possessions
There’s evidence that hoarders “pull’ memories from the past into the present moment, so their impact is fresh and compelling again. This secret of hoarding helps us understand how hoarders see their possessions as “frozen moments” that still belong to the present. To quote two examples:
- A hoarder may hang on to possessions, because they keep memories alive in the here and now.
- This association may convince them that they still need the possessions, regardless of their objective reality.
This perspective helps explain why hoarders resist decluttering, no matter how others view the state of their homes.
Insight Four: Decision-Making Overload
There’s a surprising link to decision-making overload in the context of hoarding. This particularly interesting secret of hoarding suggests hoarders are not being stubborn or over-attached to their possessions.
Instead. the truth of the matter is they simply cannot decide what to do with them. Their decision-making capacity is overloaded, and this leads to decision-making fatigue, where they are afraid to make the wrong choice.
There Are Several Aspects to This Dilemma:
- The sheer volume of decisions overwhelms the hoarder, leading to mental exhaustion.
- Many hoarders are perfectionists. They would rather do nothing than make a mistake.
- Their search for the perfect solution generates a stock of information and options.
And, as a result, many hoarders hang on to their clutter, because they simply cannot decide what to do with it.
Insight Five: Rebuilding Self-Confidence
Cognitive behavioral therapy helps people change their negative thoughts, into more positive attitudes and behaviours. The therapist administering this program helps clients understand the links between their thoughts, feelings and actions.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for hoarders, therefore focuses less on getting rid of clutter, and far more on rebuilding clients’ feelings of self-worth. The goal is to help them rebuild their confidence in themselves, and their ability to make the right decisions. With this growth in place, the clutter problem may naturally resolve.
Insight Six: Some Hoarders are Organized
A hoarders home may look like disorganized chaos, although some hoarders are highly organized in ways not obvious to the rest of us. Some, but only some hoarders know exactly where each item is, even if it is concealed in a pile.
What looks like chaos to others can, paradoxically, be a ‘spatial memory map‘ to the hoarder’s mind. This a phenomenon whereby the brain categorises items by their location.
Thank You For Reading Our Article
Thank you for reading our article about the secrets about hoarding through to the end. We hope you found it interesting and worthwhile. If you find yourself in the middle of a dilemma re clearing a hoarder’s home, then we have an offer you may like to consider.
Avery Associates has a special department of experts, dedicated to clearing homes of hoarders and deceased persons. We send in a manager first, to identify personal documents and items of particular value.
Then we send in a specialist team to clear the home completely, or selectively, according to the client’s wishes. Give us a call on 0800 567 776 during business hours, or send us an email message any time it suits. We promise you our very best personal service, and prompt attention at all times.
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