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People with hoarding disorder excessively save items that others may view as worthless. They have persistent difficulty getting rid of or parting with possessions, leading to clutter that disrupts their ability to use their living or work spaces.
Hoarding is not the same as collecting. Collectors look for specific items, such as model cars or stamps, and may organize or display them. People with hoarding disorder often save random items and store them haphazardly. In most cases, they save items that they feel they may need in the future, are valuable or have sentimental value. Some may also feel safer surrounded by the things they save.
Hoarding disorder occurs in an estimated 2 to 6 percent of the population and often leads to substantial distress and problems functioning. Some research show hoarding disorder is more common in males than females. It is also more common among older adults--three times as many adults 55 to 94 years are affected by hoarding disorder compared to adults 34 to 44 years old.
Read more on symptoms & treatment
Several organizations provide brief online screenings for depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health conditions. More than one million people took screenings through the Mental Health America site alone in 2016.
People with serious mental illness exposed to direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of medications are more likely to stop taking their medications than those not exposed to the advertising, according to new research published in Psychiatric Services in Advance.
Despite increasing public awareness and discussion about mental illness and substance use disorders, stigma is still a major barrier to many people seeking treatment. New research has identified communication strategies that are effective in reducing stigma and increasing public support for policies and programs benefitting people with behavioral health conditions.
Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)
National Alliance on Mental Illness
There have been a number of TV shows and other media coverage about people with hoarding behaviors. Has this changed the way people in general view hoarding disorder or peoples’ willingness to get help?
TV shows have raised awareness of the devastating impact hoarding behaviors can have on the individual and their loved ones. It is important for those affected to understand that TV shows, by their nature, may not capture all the time, effort and hard work that is a necessary part of any mental health treatment program. Hoarding, which became a new diagnostic entry in the DSM in 2013, affects about 2-6 percent of individuals. People with hoarding disorder have difficulty parting with possessions, clutter that interferes with normal functioning and marked distress and impairment. More
Are there early signs that a person may have hoarding disorder? Is it primarily a problem among older adults?
Initial start of hoarding symptoms is thought to happen in childhood or adolescence (typical onset is around age 13) and it is chronic and progressive. Hoarding is more common in older than younger age groups.
Below are some early signs that an adolescent may have hoarding behaviors. These behaviors are typically mild, and progress over years. They may become a severe problem in adults in their 50s. However, not every person with hoarding symptoms has a hoarding disorder.
About the Experts:
Carolyn Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D. Director, Stanford Hoarding Disorders Research Program Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine
Randy O. Frost, Ph.D. Professor, Smith College Member, Scientific & Clinical Advisory Board, The International OCD Foundation (IOCDF)
Lainie was a 47-year-old single woman referred to a community mental health team for treatment of depression and anxiety. She had never taken any psychiatric medication but had undergone CBT for depression 5 years earlier.
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MAR 19, 2020
The Conversation
In an address on Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed his dismay at the hordes of “panic buyers” sweeping supermarket shelves clean across the country. The coronavirus outbreak is not only a time of uncertainty, but also a period in which many of us are experiencing social isolation. Both of these factors can psychologically motivate people to buy things they don’t need. Feeling unable to tolerate uncertainty is associated with more extreme hoarding behaviour. Hoarding entails the collection of more items than can be feasibly used, to the point of impeding the functionality of a home. Even though the behaviours we’re seeing may not be “hoarding” in this sense, they’re likely driven by the same psychological mechanisms.
MAR 16, 2020 Are you vulnerable to online shopping addiction?Psychology Today
It may be very difficult for a person suffering from hoarding disorder to avoid the lure of late-night shopping channels or internet deals. The dizzying rush that you may feel from the instant availability of any item that attracts you is the same as a traditional in-store shopping impulse. “Great deals” lure you in and urge you to purchase now. The buyer’s remorse and anxiety you feel the next day is also the same as the regret felt after in-store impulse shopping except that it is far more convenient. As such, a problematic online shopping habit requires different coping and treatment strategies to be successful.
DEC 16, 2019
Mental Health Today
Hoarding disorder is featuring again in the Welsh media after a 70-year-old lady with post-traumatic stress disorder has been evicted from her house in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. "To strip a person with hoarding disorder of their items, of their identity, and of their homes is not the solution. It never will be". Since its reclassification in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a clinical condition in its own right, hoarding disorder is becoming a more widely understood psychiatric disorder. This multifaceted condition needs a multifaceted approach. It requires that multi-agency work be meaningful, not just another buzzword.
Physician Reviewed
Ranna Parekh, M.D., M.P.H. July 2017