Hoarding Behavior

Is there a difference between a hoarder and someone that is a collector? For the longest time, I thought they were interchangeable, I was wrong according to this week's episode. Years ago, I had a close friend that every weekend would scour garage sales, yard sales, and flea markets for something he thought he eventually would need, regardless of already having the similar item at home and this created quite a storage problem as you can well imagine.

The stark difference of a hoarder and a collector is that a hoarder accumulates an excessive of items that crowds himself out of his own home with total disorganization usually with no value to the stuff whatsoever, where a collector accumulates them in an organized fashion, even categorized, and

the latter definition is where my close friend fell into, he was not a hoarder but a collector. Was he a border line hoarder? Not sure, your guess is good as mine, I am not a psychologist.

​My guest shared her experience of living with a hoarder for 35 years, her husband, while raising children. Her husband was a brilliant professor, incidentally, I say was because he eventually took his own life, sad to say.

Hoarding disorder is a determination of not discarding the accumulation of any kind of possessions with the notion of needing to save these items. Someone with hoarding disorder experiences anguish at the thought of discarding of any items, therefore, it piles up making living conditions intolerable for all family members.

Unfortunately, hoarding often creates cramped living conditions that it often makes it impossible to enjoy the living area of your home. Over a period of time, all you have is a maze of narrow pathways through stacks of newspapers, and garbage on kitchen   Countertops, on stoves, and all other surface areas are virtually all covered with stuff. What happens if there is no more room in the house? The clutter spreads to the outdoors, the garage, both front and backyard, in the vehicle and storage sheds.

We are talking about accumulating an extreme of unnecessary stuff, however, there is also a situation of hoarding animals such as cats, dogs, inside or outside the house, and this creates a horrible health environment for the hoarder, these animals and not to mention the complaining neighbors.

Individuals with an obvious hoarding disorder usually cannot see it as an issue, making therapy exceedingly difficult since we cannot change anyone, the must be willing to change themselves. But research has shown that therapy will help those with a hoarding disorder to understand how their way of thinking can be adjusted and learn to live a safe and healthy way of life.

However, this mental condition must be address early on for successful recovery, otherwise, if this behavior is not address before senior years the behavior becomes entrenched, hence, it becomes even more challenging.

My guest indicated that if we suspect a loved one to have symptoms of this disorder, consult a mental health professional as soon as possible. When my guest was going through her ordeal, communities did not have agencies that assisted with hoarding problems. Today, there are local or county government resources in your area, please take advantage of these resources.

What are the causes of hoarding behavior? It is not clear, but research is ongoing, to determine whether if it is   Genetics, brain functioning, or it could be anxiety caused by trauma early on in life.

In fact, I know my mom grew up during the Great Depression, an economic collapse, of which caused the debacle of many bank institutions, that in her later years would not deposit money into any bank, and this created a security problem in the home, she always had a huge stash. Growing up during this era affect her confidence in banks? I suspect so, the complexity of the human mind continues to be a mystery.

The first documented hoarding behavior were the Collyer brothers in the 1930s at 2078 Fifth Avenue. in New York.

These two gentleman, Homer Lusk Collyer and Langley Wakeman Collyer were born in 1881 and 1885, respectively. Their childhood appeared normal, and eventually, Homer became an attorney andLangley bought and sold pianos while adult roommates in the 1930s.

However, in 1947, there were complaint of a horrendous stench emanating from their apartment, that police were called in to investigate. Newspapers reported that the police could not make entry because of the tremendous piles of garbage that they had to remove with an equivalent of weight of a blue whale. It was rough going; the Collyer brothers had installed booby traps throughout the house and the officers had to carefully make their way through tunnels and passages. After three weeks of clearing refuse, cleaning and searching for the two brothers, they found the source of the stench, they were dead, due to a tunnel cave-in.

What is the allegorical lesson?

We are humans and we are all inextricably connected by way of understanding that we have all experienced trauma to a degree, in which case, we have a moral obligation to aid and assist one another, especially, since we live in the information age making it much easier to find resources unlike the 1930s.