RNS: Hoarding, March 2009
TIME: 3:07
URL: http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1059
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
Compulsive hoarding poses safety and psychological risks
U-M experts say hoarding can be treated with therapy if subjects are willing and motivated
Suggested lead: Most of us save things – memorabilia, collectibles, items from our childhood or from our children. But for more than an estimated million Americans, the saving may get out of hand and cross over to a psychiatric condition known as compulsive hoarding. Here is Andi McDonnell with more.
Even though Elizabeth Nelson was raised in an upper-middle class suburb, she felt a deep sense of shame about her living conditions growing up.
The spacious basement where she rode her Big Wheel at age 3 was filled to the brim by the time she was 8.
As years went by, the home’s empty spaces disappeared, replaced with clutter.
She was so used to piles, it took Nelson years to realize her mom’s compulsion to collect and save was a psychiatric condition. She recounts a visit to her parents’ home as an adult.
Nelson tells us . . .
“the corner that we turned when I realized we have a serious problem is I came home for Thanksgiving and my dad was using portable urinals in the living room because my mother had blocked his access to the bathroom downstairs. And she thought this was okay and she said this was simply more convenient for him. And I talked to my brothers about it, I talked to my sister about it and that was when I got really concerned and I started searching online for explanations, for what, what was going on and what could we do about it…”
People who engage in hoarding put themselves and neighbors in danger. Their living conditions can present a fire hazard and are often unsanitary and unsafe. Hoarders face the real prospect of becoming buried under an avalanche of trash. Treating hoarding is difficult because people who suffer from it often don't see the squalor they live in as a problem.
Dr. James L. Abelson, (M.D., Ph.D.), an anxiety disorders expert in the University of Michigan Health System Department of Psychiatry tells us . . .
“Hoarding is the acquisition of objects and I guess the failure to discard as well. It’s a variant of saving; we all collect, we all save. We apply the term ‘hoard’ when it’s a more extreme version of acquiring and not discarding.”
Hoarders succumb to forces within their brains such that the overflowing garbage in their homes isn’t seen or isn’t experienced as distressing, Abelson says.
“For most of them, whatever they see in terms of clutter is completely overridden by what they perceive to be the value of what they’re collecting. So for most of them the clutter doesn’t matter; what matters is the fact that these things have importance to them and the loss of these things would trigger distress for them.”
If someone wants to help a person who hoards, they first need to assess if the person is willing to talk to a professional. Abelson explains . . .
“If someone’s aware of someone that they love and care about who seems to be saving things to a point where it’s creating problems for the family, for the home, it’s creating risks, dangers the first thing to do is to try and talk to them about it, try and get more information about what’s going on to see whether or not the person is able, willing to talk about it, to see if the person is able, willing to talk to a professional about it because if cooperation can be obtained it’s much more likely to lead to a positive and successful outcome.”
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News
Click here to listen to more recent radio releases Additional RNS reports are available for your use on a wide variety of topics including: cancer, children's health, depression, women's health and more!
