Do you consider yourself a shopper? A collector? Or is your habit something… more?

• Hoarding, a psychological disorder that causes people to hold on to mountains of unnecessary items, is estimated to effect up to 2% of the U.S. population. Hoarders can collect anything from magazines to craft supplies to live animals, and are often unaware of the mess they live in.
• Hoarding is often seen as a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but is different because it is less of a compulsion and more of a dissociated state focused on the frenzy and neurological rewards associated with acquiring something new. Many hoarders show signs of multiple background psychological disorders.
• Experts recommend that concerned families avoid shaming the hoarder or trying to forcibly clean out their houses. Instead, focusing on the problems that the hoarding causes and dealing with some of the underlying psychological disorders seems to help.

Facts & Figures

• The Collyer brothers became famous hoarders in 1947, when they died at home surrounded by 14 pianos, 25,000 books, thousands of newspapers, and part of a car.
• Approximately 2% of the population, across all socioeconomic dimensions, meets diagnostic criteria for hoarding.
• Experts at Tufts University have seen cases of animal hoarding with 1,000 animals living in the same home.

Best Quote

“Attorneys, surgeons, business executives—some very bright and successful people that you’d never suspect have this problem. Sometimes they’re the life of the party, but nobody’s ever been invited to their home.” – Michael A. Tompkins, Psychologist

Tags: hoarding, psychology