Compulsive hoarding is a disorder where individuals collect and keep items without being able to discard them, resulting in cluttered living spaces and social isolation. It is not the same as collecting items of value and can be difficult to treat.
Compulsive hoarding is a condition in which a person feels the need to collect everything they can without being able to get rid of anything. The items he or she collects don’t necessarily have any value. A compulsive hoarder is often someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
This acquisition of goods should not be confused with the collection of items such as comic books or antiques. Compulsive hoarding involves saving many items that are thrown away every day by the general population. Some items that the accumulator can hoard include newspapers, broken appliances, expired foods, purses, and magazines.
There are many other characteristics of compulsive hoarding. One is that the accumulator’s living space tends to become cluttered to the point of being almost unlivable. In a house where compulsive hoarding takes place, every single room ends up completely filled with objects, perhaps leaving only a narrow walkway. Items are usually not neatly arranged. They end up stacked very high and crammed together, looking like piles of trash and leaving the hoarder with little room to sleep, eat, and live.
Another feature of the pathologically hoarding individual is the inability to function normally due to the disorder. Part of their condition is the need for perfection. Most of the accumulator’s time is spent doing the smallest of chores. These also include transferring goods from one stack to another with little or no change and no decrease in the number of items. He cannot throw things away and tends to completely avoid other tasks and decisions due to the pursuit of perfection. The accumulator also lacks the ability to prioritize which objects are more important than others. In their collections you will find important documents right next to expired food products.
As a result of compulsive hoarding, they also become socially isolated. They are very aware of what they do and tend not to invite guests as a result, sometimes for years. Other people also tend to avoid the accumulator. This is not only because of the horrendous clutter, but also because hoarders sometimes have trouble returning borrowed items.
Compulsive hoarding can be especially difficult to treat. It is sometimes classified as an obsessive-compulsive behavior, but the medications and treatments associated with OCD sometimes have little effect on the hoarder. Between 700,000 and 1.4 million people in the United States are thought to have compulsive hoarding syndrome.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
