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Q&A: Hoarding
By Times Staff
Published March 10, 2005
What is compulsive hoarding?
Hoarding has three components, according to a definition used by academics: refusal to discard objects that most people don't value; furniture and household spaces unusable because clutter covers them; clutter significantly interferes with life.
What causes it?
Common explanations include clinical obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, extreme perfectionism, unresolved grief and dementia.
Who hoards?
It is most common among older people, although some young people do it as well. Hoarders can lead functional lives outside their homes. Some pack rats are kept in check by others in the house, but evolve into hoarders when loved ones die or move away.
What objects are hoarded?
In one study, the most common hoarded object was newspaper, followed by paper, containers, clothes, food, books and trash.
Can hoarders be helped?
They resist change and medication does not seem to work. One system involves weekly visits by a counselor for one to two years, reviewing each individual item with the hoarder.
Source: interviews, www.ocfoundation.org
[Last modified March 10, 2005, 09:17:02]
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