Are there any known psychological reasons for hoarders?
My friend hoards everything from television sets to cases and cases of food. He cannot buy just 1 of anything, he buys everything in the case or 2. He just recently put of 4 shelving units for his "finds" He has put shelving units up in every room in his house and he has 1 room just for what he calls "storage" He has 3 freezers full of food in the garage, 1 freezer full in the breezeway and a fridge full in the kitchen.
He is divorced, all his kids have moved out and are adults. His house is so full you cannot move around without climbing around cases and cases of food…everything from stewed tomato’s to soup.
He has 5 water jugs full of water. He has a room full of plastic containers full of stuff. Its unbelievable. I cannot marry him unless he stops this nonsense and gets his life together. He is a great person except for his hoarding and filth. Have psychiatrist ever come up with a reason for hoarding?
When we go out to eat together, he has to save something off his meal to pack and take home with him, He gets all weird if I leave part of a potato or a roll behind. If we go to a burger joint, he eats about 1/2 the burger and saves the rest for home. He says he will take it to work for lunch. He always gets a refill on the pop or to take home and transfer to a plastic container for later.
Yes, depending upon the degree of this type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition, or, DSM-IV) this can be completely debilitating. About 40% of OCD patients suffer from some sort of Hoarding. Please see the references below.
Yes, it’s a form of OCD.
References :
Yes, depending upon the degree of this type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition, or, DSM-IV) this can be completely debilitating. About 40% of OCD patients suffer from some sort of Hoarding. Please see the references below.
References :
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52017
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=32923
http://www.medicinenet.com/obsessive_compulsive_disorder_ocd/article.htm
my mom is like this too!
References :
There actually was a show about this on TLC the other night. There are therapists that can come to his house and help him with his hoarding problem.
I think that childhood abuse/neglect can have something to do with it, and being a child of an alcoholic. The doctor on the show said that the cat scans of a hoarder’s brain are different than a normal functioning person.
Your best bet is to get him to see a psychiatrist to work on his problem.
References :
i was talking to someone about a week ago about this very thing. she is a retired police woman and many times had to search houses of dead people to rule out any foul play.
she told me how many people who were once in concentration camps were hoarders. food would be hidden under sheets and blankets and tucked away in all corners of the dwelling. people who had nothing or had very little and that was taken away from them tended to hide what they got so it wouldn’t be taken away from them ever again.
talk to him and learn about his childhood, the answers may lie there.
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