Don't refer to their possessions as 'junk' or 'rubbish'. This shows that you don't understand their connection to the objects or why they want to keep them. They will be less likely to open up to you if you talk about their things this way. Don't focus on a total clean-up.
Create A Discussion
Encourage the person with the problem to open up to you. Reassure them that you're there to listen and not be judgemental. People struggling with hoarding may be in strong denial so be patient and allow them to have their say, whatever that may be.
Mental health problems associated with hoarding include: severe depression. psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Touching Items Without Permission: Hoarders have an unnatural attachment to the things that they have gathered. If a person tries to move the possessions without the hoarder's consent, the hoarder can become emotionally upset or angry.
Personality. Many people who have hoarding disorder have a behavior style that includes trouble making decisions and problems with attention, organization and problem-solving. Family history. There is a strong association between having a family member who has hoarding disorder and having the disorder yourself.
Conclusions: Hoarding symptoms are associated with increased emotional contagion and decreased cognitive empathy. Empathy may be an avenue for understanding and treating interpersonal difficulties in hoarding disorder.
Some researchers believe hoarding can relate to childhood experiences of losing things, not owning things, or people not caring for you. This might include experiences like: Money worries or living in poverty in childhood. Having your belongings taken or thrown away by someone.
Hoarders generally experience embarrassment about their possessions and feel uncomfortable when others see them. Their clutter often takes over functional living space, and they feel sad or ashamed after acquiring additional items.
Hoarding gets worse with age, which is why it's often associated with older adults, but it usually starts in childhood.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are most commonly used to treat hoarding disorder. A recent meta-analysis shows that treatment response to pharmacotherapy is similar to the response in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Hoarding is an anxiety disorder. A person with this disorder is unable to get rid of things, even things of no value. These could include newspaper clippings, old receipts, containers, even trash.
Being the family member of a person with hoarding disorder (HD) can be very stressful. For those family members who live with the person with HD, such as a partner, child, sibling or dependent parent, living among the extreme clutter can cause a lot of physical and emotional difficulties.
As with most mental health disorders, hoarding disorder is a lifelong condition. However, the hoarding outlook doesn't have to be daunting. With treatment and the incorporation of coping mechanisms, someone with hoarding disorder can remain in recovery and feel comfortable in their home.
Hoarders often endure a lifelong struggle with hoarding. They tend to live alone and may have a family member with the problem.
Those most often associated with hoarding are obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and depression.
The initial start of hoarding symptoms is thought to happen in childhood or adolescence (typical onset is around age 16) and it is chronic and progressive. Hoarding is more common in older than younger age groups. Below are some early signs that an individual may have hoarding behaviors.
Two of the most common forms are cat hoarding and dog hoarding. However, a person can hoard any animal.
Parents might feel glued to their "stuff." But hoarding can become child abuse. Children growing up with an alcoholic parent may feel neglected. When they get older, they may be furious that they had to live with a shameful secret.
Hoarding often runs in families and can frequently accompany other mental health disorders, like depression, social anxiety, bipolar disorder, and impulse control problems.
These results suggest that hoarders' decisions about possessions are hampered by abnormal activity in brain regions used to identify the emotional significance of things. “They lose the ability to make relative judgments, so the decision becomes absolutely overwhelming and aversive to them,” Tolin says.
They just won't find their way out. It's for these reasons, in part, that hoarding is extremely difficult to treat. And hoarding is almost always accompanied by a comorbid condition--depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder are among the most common--which complicates matters even further.
We found that children who grew up with parents who hoard often lived in environments tainted by high conflict, poor problem solving, and low support. As a result, parent-child relationships in these homes were often negatively affected.