subject: The Common Compulsions of Compulsive Hoarding [print this page] The Common Compulsions of Compulsive Hoarding
The hoarding process involves the accumulation of clutter. But is every clutter-prone person exhibiting traits of hoarding? The answer to this is no. Similar to the hoarder, the clutterer is very messy with his or her possessions but unlike the compulsive hoarder, this is a situation that does not get out of control. In fact, statistically, up to 40% of the population accumulate clutter to one extent or the other. Learning and implementing organizational skills is the answer; thereby demonstrating the fact that being organized does not come naturally to everyone.
Compulsive hoarding is far more complicated than just being disorganised. By way of definition, compulsive hoarding is the uncontrollable acquisition and keeping of goods that appear to have a perceived value of importance - at least to the person involved. This generally results in so much clutter in the home that parts of the living quarters become unusable for their original purpose. For example, having so much things in the kitchen for instance that the sufferer is unable to move about to adequately prepare his meals.
Traits of compulsive hoarding have been observed in a wide spectrum of people ranging from those with other underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD) conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's disease to those who do not exhibit any other traits at all. In fact, compulsive hoarding is considered a type of OCD.
Hoarding is characterised by traits such as indecisiveness, repeating obsessive behaviour, perfectionism, ordering, procrastination, counting and avoidance which are exhibited to a higher degree than in the average individual. These results in the inability of the hoarder to place a limit on the things they acquire.
Shopping for more and more unneeded items, continuous checking and re-checking of their garbage or the garbage of others for items, and/or looking through circulars for sales are some of the compulsions of the hoarder. Also, they can become obsessive about the things they possess by counting and recounting their things. Some hoarders also exhibit other abnormal traits like hair pulling, skin pricking or nail biting to mention a few.
The accumulation and keeping of clutter is really an indication of a deeper underlying problem which is usually centered on fears that the hoarder has regarding their possessions. For some it is the fact that they may need an item in the future and so for fear of running out, they buy and buy even more. This type of behavior may be have stemmed from their past experiences in the earlier parts of their lives where they had to endure living in hardship. In such a scenario, the hoarding is a reflection of their survival mechanism that is at play. For some hoarders however, developing an emotional attachment to their property has resulted in a heightened fear of loss. The result is that they refuse to keep things away and out of their sight. For others on the other hand, the indecision factor comes into play - they fear they will throw out the wrong things and then end up not throwing out anything at all as the way out of the dilemma. Another group of hoarders fear they may lose control of their lives if they throw out their possessions by losing control of their possessions.
