The Danger Of Hoarding

For 25 years, a difficult-neighbor problem plagued Curtis and ElaineColvin of Seattle. The neighbor's home and lawn resembled a junkyard.Finally, last spring, the elderly man was taken out of state byrelatives. Konstantinos Apostolou bought the house — and sent in fivemen to clear the floor-to-ceiling junk."It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life," says hisson, George Apostolou.There was nowhere to walk, except for a narrow "goat path" connectingthe rooms. The men hauled out seven Dumpsters' worth of clothes,books, magazines, spoiled food, firewood, car parts, tires, bankstatements and 50-year-old tax records.Animal hoardingCould you be a border hoarder?Many people see traces of hoarding behavior in themselves. Thoughhaving a big mess is a far cry from pathological hoarding, suchbehavior appears to be on a continuum.Professionals who run self-help groups for mild or borderline hoarders— those chronic clutterers who acknowledge their problem and are trulymotivated to change — offer this advice:Excavate one tiny area at a time — one tabletop, one corner, onedrawer, one shelf in the medicine cabinet.Sort before discarding anything. It's hard to relinquish one scarf,but less hard to get rid of 20 out of 40.Wear those unworn clothes. If something feels wrong or you dislikewearing it, consider whether it's worth keeping. Even a reluctance towear something is telling.Donate items instead of throwing them away, since it's a comfort toknow they can find a good home with someone else.Don't buy a book unless you spend half an hour with it in thebookstore. For every book acquired, relinquish two books that you'vealready identified as dispensable.Control acquisition by imagining you must pay a dollar for every"free" thing.Take before and after photos, so you can see the difference and chartyour progress.Sources: Beth Johnson, Clutter Workshop (clutterworkshop.com), WestHartford, Conn.; Sondra Schiff, A to Zen Organizing(atozenorganizing .com), New York, N.Y."I feel bad for the guy," says Apostolou. "I'm sure he was ill."Just how ill is still little understood. The man was a classic hoarder— a condition usually considered freakish and laughable, or dismissedwith cutesy terms like "pack rat" and "junkaholic." Only now ishoarding garnering serious attention.Within the past six years, about 10 municipalities have formed taskforces so that public services can collaborate in cleaning up theproperty and helping the hoarder. And researchers are studying howhoarding differs from seemingly related conditions. Hoarding iscurrently considered one of the symptoms of obsessive-compulsivedisorder (OCD).Hoarders don't just save stuff, but constantly acquire new stuff — tosuch a remarkable degree that it interferes with functioning andsafety.It's unclear how widespread hoarding is, since the problem oftensurfaces only after a neighbor's complaint or a medical emergency.Randy Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College in Northampton,Mass., estimates that 2% to 3% of the population has OCD, and up to athird of those exhibit hoarding behavior.Real danger can lurk in homes overflowing with stuff. Floors bucklefrom the weight. People get buried under piles. Insects and rodentsfeast on rotting food. Combustibles ignite, endangering both occupantsand firefighters.Fairfax County, Va., formed one of the first task forces in 1998 aftersquatters settled in a house vacated by a hoarder, lit a fire in thefireplace and died in the ensuing blaze.Behavioral peculiarities among hoarders come as no surprise toresearchers.For example, "They have rambling or overinclusive speech, where youask them a question and they tell you a whole story with everypossible detail before they get to the answer," says Sanjaya Saxena, aprofessor at UCLA's School of Medicine.They have high levels of anxiety, depression and perfectionism. Theyare greatly indecisive — over what to eat, what to wear. They preparefor all contingencies, keeping items "just in case."But the true hallmark: "They apply emotions to a range of things thatothers would consider worthless," says Frost. Where most people see anempty roll of toilet paper, they see art supplies.At the same time, they tend to be articulate and well-educated, withsophisticated reasons for their saving and acquiring. What if theyforgo a newspaper and with it the bit of knowledge that will changetheir life for the better?Though people with OCD — those who endlessly wash their hands or checkthe stove — acknowledge their behavior and are distressed by it,hoarders deny they have a problem.Brain scans show a difference in brain abnormalities between peoplewith non-hoarding OCD and hoarding OCD, says Saxena of UCLA, who isstudying the neurobiology of hoarding.Whereas non-hoarders show elevated brain activity in certain areas,hoarders show decreased activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus,whichdeals with focus, attention and decision-making.Frost is developing cognitive behavioral treatments, but progress isslow. Almost always, if a place is cleaned out, the hoarding behaviorreturns immediately.In Pittsfield, Mass., fire chief Stephen Duffy tells of one elderlywidow whose house had "debris piled higher than the bed, with one spotwhere she curled up on the mattress to sleep."




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