What Is Hoarding?

What Is Hoarding?

Hoarding is a key symptom of a mental illness known as hoarding disorder. It's characterized by the extreme difficulty of getting rid of possessions—even those of little or no value. As items accumulate over time, they clutter a person's home to the point where living spaces can't be used as intended. When severe, hoarding can put a person (and others in their home) in danger.

Types

There are a few different types of hoarding that people may experience. Some people may exhibit a specific type of hoarding, while others may experience a more general form.

• Animal hoarding: Involves acquiring many animals as pets, often many more than the person can care for
• Compulsive shopping: Involves a preoccupation with shopping and buying unneeded items
• Object hoarding: Involves hoarding specific items such as paper, books, clothing, or even garbage

Symptoms

A person with hoarding disorder is primarily unable to part with objects, items, or possessions, but the disorder can also include what is known as excessive acquisition. With this behavior, a person actively seeks to acquire more unneeded items.

People who hoard have varying levels of insight into their behavior. Some are able to recognize their maladaptive thoughts and understand how they contribute to hoarding, while others fail to acknowledge that they hoard and don't connect how they think and feel with the behavior.

Potential Risks

When extreme, hoarding can put the person and anyone else in their home, including pets, in danger. For example:

• Piles of items create fire hazards and may make some areas of the home inaccessible (or inescapable).
• Rotting food, garbage, and pet waste increases the risk of infectious disease, especially if it attracts insects and rodents.

Other risks are specific to what a person hoards. For example, a person who hoards animals may have exotic pets who are more likely to carry pathogens. The risk of illness is increased further if a person who hoards cannot properly care for their animals. Pets that are not groomed or are unvaccinated are vulnerable to disease, which may be passed to their owners or other pets.

Other Consequences

Some other potential consequences of hoarding that are major concerns for people with hoarding disorder and those who live with them include:

• Impaired ability to prepare food
• Inability to maintain personal hygiene
• Interpersonal conflict
• Poor sanitation
• Social isolation
• Other health and safety hazards

It's also not uncommon for people with hoarding disorder to run into problems with utilities and housing authorities. They also have a high rate of utilization of social service agencies.

Diagnosis

Hoarding is a primary symptom of a condition known as hoarding disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), classifies hoarding disorder in the category of "Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders."

The DSM-5 outlines the following diagnostic criteria for hoarding disorder:

• Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions which may be seen by others as having limited value or utility
• Perceived need to save items and distress associated with discarding them
• Symptoms result in the accumulation of a large number of possessions that clutter the living areas and compromise their intended use
• Clinically significant distress or impairment in an important aspect of functioning, including maintaining a safe living environment
• Symptoms are not due to a general medical condition (e.g., cognitive impairment)
• Symptoms are not better accounted for by another psychiatric disorder (e.g., major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, or OCD)

Causes

There isn't a single factor that predisposes someone to hoard or causes the disorder to start. As with other mental illnesses, it's more likely that factors come together to create the right circumstances internally and externally for the disorder to flourish.

Risk factors for hoarding disorder include:

• Compulsive buying habits
• Having family members who also have hoarding disorder
• Traumatic experiences

Some aspects of hoarding may be inherited, as several studies have proposed genetic variables in people who hoard. Research also indicates that an inherent tendency toward generalized indecisiveness is common in people who hoard as well as in their first-degree relatives

Environmental factors, including traumatic or significant life stressors and changes, may occur prior to when the hoarding starts and can make the behavior worse.

Prevalence

Around 2% to 6% of the general population in the United States is estimated to have a hoarding disorder. Hoarding behaviors often start in childhood or adolescence and progressively worsen as a person gets older.

Over time, a person's level of daily functioning and living conditions become more impaired by hoarding, which is often exacerbated by a significant or traumatic life event (e.g., death of a spouse, loss of a job, children moving away to college).

Treatment

Many people who hoard do not get treatment, often because of poor insight, a lack of resources, or shame. Those who do seek treatment are usually 50 years of age or older.

Psychotherapy

Hoarding-specific cognitive behavioral therapy, which involves assisting people to change the way they think and make decisions about their belongings, has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for the disorder.

Treating hoarding disorder is a process. It can take time and may require more than one type of intervention, including:

• A clinical interview and functional assessment of a person's behavior
• Psychoeducation to improve the person's insight and help them better understand the disorder
• Collaborative goal-setting between the person who hoards and the mental health professionals (like a social worker or psychologist) working with them
• Cognitive therapy to identify a person's cognitive distortions and assist them with developing cognitive flexibility and adaptive cognitive restructuring
• Acquiring organizational and problem-solving skills through training
• Exposure and response prevention to acquisition opportunities, as well as other types of behavioral experiments
• Excavation exposure to guide a person through the process of de-cluttering, which can involve sorting through possessions while utilizing and practicing their newly acquired decision-making skills

Medications

There are currently no FDA-approved pharmacological treatments for hoarding disorder.

Antidepressant medications (including SSRIs and SNRIs) may have limited potential as a treatment for hoarding, particularly when a person has another mental health condition such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Psychostimulants and cognitive enhancers are also being investigated as possible treatments.

Coping

In addition to seeking treatment for your condition, there are some things that you can do to help manage your symptoms and overall well-being.

• Seek support. Hoarding can lead to social isolation, which can make it much harder to get the help and support that you need. Reach out to friends and family members. If you prefer that people not come into your home, meet them in an outside location. Having someone to talk to can help you feel better and manage feelings of anxiety and depression that often accompany hoarding.
• Practice good self-care. Make sure that you are eating regular, healthy meals and following good hygiene. If you are having trouble accessing your kitchen or bathroom, focus on clearing those areas first.
• Focus on small steps. Change won't happen overnight, but you can make progress toward recovery. The process will take time and you may need to break down your goals into smaller, more achievable steps.
• Accept help. The process of cleaning up the results of hoarding can be overwhelming and difficult for you to manage on your own. Ask your friends and loved ones to help you clean up and organize your home. There may also be local professionals and organizations that can be of assistance including cleaning services and professional organizers.

A Word From Verywell

Hoarding is a mental illness that makes it difficult, if not impossible, for someone to part with possessions, regardless of their monetary value or sentimental worth or lack thereof. The accumulation of items over time often renders a person's home and living space uninhabitable, and may even put them (and others in the home) in danger.

As with most mental illnesses, the cause of hoarding is complex, and while effective treatment for hoarding disorders takes time and may require more than one approach, such as psychotherapy and medication, help is available.