There’s a Way Out: Hoarding Disorder

​Hoarding is a mental disorder in which a person accumulates excessive possessions and feels distress when parting with them. This leads to unsafe living conditions, malnutrition, and poor personal hygiene. Hoarding disorder, or HD for short, is a growing issue. Studies suggest prevalence is around 2-5% of the population and will continue to increase. The disorder is more common in adults than younger individuals.
I chose HD for my blog post because it is a great concern for both the individual and the public but is rarely talked about. There is a house in my town that is owned by a hoarder and it pains me to pass by it. It makes me extremely upset to think of the possible animals that are living inside. It also breaks my heart to think about the damage that the person is doing to their own body, both physically and mentally. 

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Author

Valerie MacDonald
​Outbreak! 2020

HD also spreads possible health dangers to the community like: fire hazards, overpopulation of unspayed animals, diseases, and parasites. Mold, dust, ammonia, and pet dander can be dangerous to the individuals living inside the home.
Visit this website to learn more: https://hoarding.iocdf.org/
Improving communication between you and the hoarder will help them realize that they have a problem. The next step is being a positive reinforcement and changing your perspective. When you and the members of your community do this, it will have a great effect on the individual who hoards. The officials in your community will help fix the problem by providing more professional help (mental health providers, community responders, Hoarding Task Force members, and researchers who are working with those affected by HD). Mental health providers are crucial to provide treatment. Some of these approaches include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, (CBT), which allow patients to gradually become less distressed about holding onto possessions and will have a decreased desire to keep future ones. Others include motivational interviewing, skills training, and medication.
In addition, further research on what causes hoarding is a vital step because there are very few studies on what exactly happens in the brain. Some think it has to do with inherited disorders while others say traumatic experiences stimulate hoarding.
 
 Works Cited:
 
“The Environmental Hazard That Is Hoarding.” Flood and Water Damage Experts of Colorado |
ECOS Environmental, 7 Oct. 2019, ecosenvironmental.com/the-environmental-hazard-that-is-hoarding/.
“Hoarding Disorder.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 3
Feb. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hoarding-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20356056.
“Home.” Hoarding, hoarding.iocdf.org/.
Puskar, Michael. “How To Help A Hoarder - Important Do's And Don'ts.” Betterhelp,
BetterHelp, 11 Jan. 2018, www.betterhelp.com/advice/how-to/how-to-help-a-hoarder-important-dos-and-donts/.