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Compulsive Hoarding

If you have OCD and have been suffering from hoarding problems, you are all too familiar with what hoarding actually is. If you are struggling to understand the act of hoarding, here are some basics for you to understand. Compulsive hoarding is also referred to in clinical studies as pathological hoarding. The disorder has to do with being compelled to collect things or failing to get rid of unreasonable numbers of certain objects. Even when storage becomes a problem and interferes with simple living activities, compulsive hoarding tendencies leave the sufferer with the inability to fix the problem. Here are some points for you to ponder.

* Compulsive hoarding is the failure to discard huge amounts of possessions, whether or not they are totally useless. OCD hoarding sufferers feel that they may just need what they threw away someday.

* Compulsive hoarders live in cluttered living spaces and are unable to perform activities in the areas that they were designed for.

* Compulsive hoarding has been known to overlap with obsessive compulsive disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder, and impulse control disorder. But there are indeed people who are compulsive hoarders without showing other symptoms that can be diagnosed as any of the above disorders. More studies are needed to determine whether compulsive hoarding is a symptom or a completely separate condition

* When associated with impulse control disorder, compulsive hoarding often manifests itself in compulsive acquisition or buying.

* When some or most of the rooms in a home can no longer be used for their intended purposes due to amassed stuff, this is likely a sign that a person living there is a compulsive hoarder.

* Another indicator of compulsive hoarding is when doors or entry points from the outside world are blocked. Chairs and tables may be covered with papers, books, receipts, bills, newspapers, etc. leaving inhabitants with no where to sit or lay things.

* Compulsive hoarding of garbage, called syllogomania, may not be the only symptom of this condition. Hoarding may also include food or knick-knacks, papers, cleaners etc.

* Even when a compulsive hoarder happens to "clean house', you can bet that within hours or at the most days, the clutter will return with a vengeance. I had that problem with my daughter. I would clean out her room of cleaners, food, candy wrappers, papers, everything and within hours the same "areas" would be full again.

* Compulsive hoarders stash items behind furniture, and in any open space.

* Children with compulsive hoarding tendencies are much disorganized, very messy and have a hard time in school. My daughter cannot find anything in her desk at school because it is full with useless junk. Teachers have helped her empty it, only to find it full again within days. The same goes for homework, because she collects so many papers, she cannot find what she needs when she needs it. When disorganization affects all aspects of their school and home life, it may be time to get it checked out. From my experience, time just make matters worse.