What is Hoarding?

What is Hoarding Disorder?

"Diagnostic Criteria from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) 1. Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value. 2. This difficulty is due to a perceived need to save the items and to distress associated with discarding them. 3. The difficulty discarding possessions results in the accumulation of possessions that congest and clutter active living areas and substantially compromises their intended use. If living areas are uncluttered, it is only because of the interventions of third parties (e.g., family members, cleaners, authorities). 4. The hoarding causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (including maintaining a safe environment for self and others). 5. The hoarding is not attributable to another medical condition (e.g., brain injury, cerebrovascular disease, Prader-Willi syndrome). 6. The hoarding is not better explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder (e.g., obsessions in obsessive-compulsive disorder, decreased energy in major depressive disorder, delusions in schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder, cognitive deficits in major neurocognitive disorder, restricted interests in autism spectrum disorder). . ..

Specifiers include: From: DSM-5®—Understanding Mental Disorders
 * With excessive acquisition
 * With good or fair insight
 * With poor insight
 * With absent insight/delusional beliefs"

What is the difference between Clutter, Hoarding and Collecting?

"What are the differences between hoarding disorder (HD) and clutter, collecting, and squalor? Simply collecting or owning lots of things does not mean someone has HD.  A major feature of HD is the disorganized nature of the clutter — in most cases, the living spaces can no longer be used for everyday living as they were intended. Moving through the home is challenging, exits are blocked, and normal routines within the home are difficult.

Thus, while it’s common for our homes to get messy and/or cluttered at times, this is not the same as having HD. Similarly, being a collector of items does not mean a person has HD."  From: About Hoarding from International OCD Foundation (IOCD)

There are multiple levels of Hoarding, but no matter the size and depth of the clutter or hoard, the same steps and approaches can help with improving our living conditions. There are the basic approaches, and there are lots of tips. Choose the parts and pieces that work and set aside the ones that don't. Keep whatever works for you!

Do we have some clutter? Are our collections out of control? Are we "hoarders"? Do we have "hoarding tendencies"? It may not always be necessary to "label" ourselves - because many of the tried and true solutions can work for all of us.

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