Hoarding
If you have a difficult time letting go of things that other people might consider of little value and if you tend to acquire things at a rapid rate, you might be a hoarder. Because of their propensity to acquire and their lack of inclination to get rid of things, many hoarders live in conditions that others would find unliveable.
Not a lot is understood about hoarding. It is thought to be related to a variety of issues, such as ADHD, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, impulse control disorder, even eating disorders. David F. Tolin, Director of the Anxiety Disorders Center in Hartford, Connecticut, and co-author of Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding, spoke at a 2007 conference of the National Study Group of Chronic Disorganization. In his talk, he said that the age of onset of hoarding symptoms is quite young—almost 30 percent of those studied by Dr. Tolin and his colleagues reported onset of symptoms at the age of 6 to 10 years.
Unfortunately, no drugs have been found to be effective in treating hoarding. However, Dr. Tolin and his colleagues have developed a cognitive behavioral therapy program for hoarders that includes motivational interviewing, help with organizing, help with decision making, exposure to non-acquiring and discarding, and “cognitive restructuring” or adjusting the client’s behavior and feelings about stuff.
If you feel you’re a hoarder, traditional therapy may be useful. You might find Dr. Tolin’s self-help book, Buried in Treasures, helpful. (Buried in Treasures was cowritten by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee.) Another book written specifically to help hoarders is Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding: Why You Save and How You Can Stop, by Fugen Nizorglu, Jerome Bubrick, and Jose A. Yaryura-Tobias.
When you feel you’re ready to start letting go of your stuff, a trained organizer can help. Janine specializes in working with the chronically disorganized and has attended several talks on hoarding from the leading researchers, as well as read their books. She can gently support your decisions as you work toward modifying your behavior and reestablishing control over your space.