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    Conquering Compulsive Hoarding
    Conquering Compulsive Hoarding
    Conquering Compulsive Hoarding
    Ebook81 pages1 hour

    Conquering Compulsive Hoarding

    By Desmond Gahan

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Hoarding disorder is a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items. Excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value, occurs.

    Hoarding often creates such cramped living conditions that homes may be filled to capacity, with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter. Countertops, sinks, stoves, desks, stairways and virtually all other surfaces are usually piled with stuff. And when there's no more room inside, the clutter may spread to the garage, vehicles, yard and other storage facilities.

    Hoarding ranges from mild to severe. In some cases, hoarding may not have much impact on your life, while in other cases it seriously affects your functioning on a daily basis.

    People with hoarding disorder may not see it as a problem, making treatment challenging. But intensive treatment can help people with hoarding disorder understand how their beliefs and behaviors can be changed so that they can live safer, more enjoyable lives.

    Getting and saving an excessive number of items, gradual buildup of clutter in living spaces and difficulty discarding things are usually the first signs and symptoms of hoarding disorder, which often surfaces during the teenage to early adult years.

    As the person grows older, he or she typically starts acquiring things for which there is no immediate need or space. By middle age, symptoms are often severe and may be harder to treat.

    Problems with hoarding gradually develop over time and tend to be a private behavior. Often, significant clutter has developed by the time it reaches the attention of others.

    Signs and symptoms may include:

    • Excessively acquiring items that are not needed or for which there's no space
    • Persistent difficulty throwing out or parting with your things, regardless of actual value
    • Feeling a need to save these items, and being upset by the thought of discarding them
    • Building up of clutter to the point where rooms become unusable
    • Having a tendency toward indecisiveness, perfectionism, avoidance, procrastination, and problems with planning and organizing
    • There is good news....the condition can be successfully treated.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDesmond Gahan
    Release dateJun 14, 2017
    ISBN9781386459415
    Conquering Compulsive Hoarding
    Author

    Desmond Gahan

    Desmond Gahan BA., (Dip. Applied Psychology) is the author and publisher of many non fiction books. His special area is psychology and psychopathology. He lives in Dublin Ireland.

    Read more from Desmond Gahan

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    • 2/5
      There are some good points made such as leaving the control with the person struggling, don't take over. I was a hoarder. Lots of this book is not getting to the root and not accurate. It's looking from the outside in and making inferences based on their own understanding rather than into what's really going on. It also separate I the person who struggles with hoarding by making them out to be a thing (hoarder) I rather than a person by both referring to them only as "hoarder" and by painting them all the same and not leaving them room to change. I was a hoarder, but I don't resonate with most of what was said about them in this book. I wrote a book on this topic for this exact reason. Still, I do appreciate that the author is trying to help by addressing the issues faced.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Conquering Compulsive Hoarding - Desmond Gahan

    Table of Contents

    Part 1: Understanding the Problem  

    The Dangers of Hoarding       5

    The Hoarder’s Home        6

    The Three Features of Compulsive Hoarding Behavior    10

    The Scenario         11

    Analyzing the Facets of Hoarding Behavior    13

    Excessive Acquisition       15

    Saving Stuff: From a Hoarder’s Perspective    18

    Hoarding & Fatal Disorganization      22

    In Focus: Hoarding & Impairment      28

    Types of Hoarding Behavior       29

    Common hoarding behavior     30

    Diogenes syndrome       30

    Animal hoarding       31

    Hoarding Beliefs        32

    Part 2: Preparing to Help a Hoarder   

    The Warning Signs        37

    Essential Guiding Principles       41

    The Case of Girard, An 82-Year-Old Hoarder    47

    Your House Is a Firetrap!      47

    I Feel Betrayed       49

    Analysis         49

    The Three Tasks        50

    Task # 1: Letting Go Of the Past      50

    Task # 2: Learning to Understand Better     51

    Task # 3: Forgiveness Matters      52

    Part 3: Communicating & Assessing

    How Can A Hoarder Finally Accept Help?     53

    The Four-Step Communication Model    54

    Step # 1: Learn to Listen       54

    Step # 2: Offer Empathy      56

    Step # 3: Sincere Agreement      58

    Step # 4: Become Partners With the Hoarder     59 

    Assessment Checklists       60

    Part 4: Strategies for Implementation   

    Forming the Core Support Team     66

    A Note about Professionals       67

    Creating an Organizing Plan       68

    Important Reminders before Starting     71

    References         73

    Appendix 1: 73

    Part 1:

    Understanding the Problem

    In recent times, there has been an increased interest in obsessive compulsive behavior, specifically, compulsive hoarding or the uncontrollable acquisition of material possessions. It is estimated that about 3% of the total United States population are suffering from this condition.

    However, statistics per state are by no means conclusive. This is especially true since this type of problem is usually considered so shameful that many of those suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) decline to get professional help.  In many cases, the OCD sufferer also does not believe that there is anything wrong with the extreme acquisition of material possessions.

    This brings us to the next issue: why should people care at all about hoarding behavior?

    The Dangers of Hoarding

    From a very broad point of view, hoarding behavior produces two problems: danger to one’s physical and mental well-being, and danger to the community. The increased public fascination with OCD behavior can be seen in the number of television shows that focus on the living conditions of modern hoarders.

    If you have watched any of these television shows, you probably noticed that nearly all of the houses of people with hoarding problems are filled with combustible materials. Whether the hoarder was fond of collecting hats or stacks of newspapers, it doesn’t matter.

    In the end, the hoard itself is very combustible and all it will take is a small fire to turn the material stockpile into a roaring fire that can also put other homes in the community at risk.

    The second problem brought about by the increased acquisition of material possessions is the compromised structural integrity of the hoarder’s home. In many cases, the total amount of accumulated materials (or junk) inside a hoarder’s house can exceed one metric ton.

    Such measurement of a person’s mass is usually possible only when the city council steps in and forcibly carries away the massive accumulation in the property. While this solves the sanitary or fire hazard issue for a few weeks, this forceful approach will never be effective. It does not solve the problem.

    The manifestations of the hoarding behavior were simply swept under the rug, but the problem itself was not properly addressed, nor was care or understanding given to the person who needs it the most. Without proper treatment, a hoarder will simply re-accumulate all the material possessions within a few months to a year.

    Within a few months, members of the city council (or fire department) will probably be scratching their heads again because the hoard has been re-accumulated and they are back once again to square one.

    The Hoarder’s Home

    To a person who does not have hoarding behavior or has never seen the house of a hoarder, the idea of having so much stuff to the point of endangering oneself and one’s family is at best, puzzling.

    And so the multitudes ask: What’s it like to be in a hoarder’s home?

    Here is a brief glimpse of what a hoarder’s home can be like (though the severity of the inventory itself depends on the severity of a person’s hoarding behavior):

    As we have mentioned earlier, a hoarder’s home is usually filled with possessions that can easily feed a large fire.

    Newspapers, magazines, old records, plastic bottles, food and beverage containers, old appliances and boxes upon boxes of mixed materials (plastic, paper and wood) are usually sightings in a hoarder’s home.

    Entrances and exits (including last resort exits like windows) are usually completely blocked or at least partially blocked, which poses a hazard in itself.

    The occupant will be unable to quickly leave the house during a medical emergency or a fire. Blocked exits can also cause injuries. Emergency personnel will have a hard time rescuing anyone inside during a real emergency.

    When horizontal spaces are fully occupied by possessions, hoarders usually resort to buying large boxes. Hoarders pile heavy boxes one after the other, in the effort to accumulate more stuff (at this point though, the floors of the

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