Hoarding - Address The Core Issue and Its Impact on You and Others

Hoarding has recently been popularized on television through hoarding shows. Hoarding is the excessive collecting of items and the inability to discard them. The excessive collecting leads to cramped cluttered living spaces with little room to move around. Sometimes, the items collected are living animals which can lead to an unhealthy living environment.

People hoard often due to thoughts that the items they are collecting will eventually be utilized or they might have an emotional connection to the items. It is important to seek treatment for hoarding because it can lead to unsanitary living conditions, family conflicts, and social isolation.

While seeking treatment is often very important, hoarders rarely seek treatment on their own.  The hoarder often does not recognize the issue or believes that dealing with the issue will require painful separation from the things that have deemed so important to life. Most hoarders come to treatment because family members force them to attend.  This leads to a poor success rate for treatment.

While the success rate is often low, there are specific strategies that increase the level of success and help the person feel in control of their environment even while discarding stuff in the living space.

Our Founder Dan Duncan, LPC was a guest therapist on Hoarding: Buried Alive in July 2011 as well. Click here to learn more about the television appearance.