OCD and the Need to Hoard
The assumption has often been that only those with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are chronic hoarders, but the definition has been broadened to include significant clutter in the home as well as other behaviors which lead to impairment. In order to explore hoarding and the groups in which it might be seen as a symptom of their anxiety disorder, Suzanne A. Meunier, PhD, studied 139 individuals who had either OCD, GAD, panic and/or agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, or a specific phobia. The diagnosis of an anxiety disorder was found with comorbid depression in 20% of the subjects.
Participants in the study were rated on clutter scores, acquisition and difficulty discarding and those with panic or a specific phobia had no pathologic hoarding. Eleven percent of individuals who had a diagnosis of OCD, 14% with social anxiety disorder, and 27% of those with GAD self-reported compulsive hoarding. Both OCD and GAD patients had higher hoarding scores than the other groups.
Compulsive hoarding affects patients' work, family, and social life with families indicating the greatest problem. And it appeared to the researchers that there is a strong link to depression. Other than this interesting finding, the researchers did not offer any indications as to why those with social anxiety or GAD engaged in hoarding.
If we consider that hoarding may be an indication of a need to protect from unforeseen calamities, it would stand to reason that both those with social anxiety or GAD would feel a need to hoard. Individuals with GAD, perhaps, just like those with OCD may find the world an uncertain and unfriendly place where hoarding plays a role in providing protection from the whims of life.
The study was reported at the 2006 annual convention of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and also appeared in Clinical Psychiatry News, May 2006, 34(5), 33.
Related Topics: Bird Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Clue to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Technorati Tags: hoarding, pack-rat, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD
Participants in the study were rated on clutter scores, acquisition and difficulty discarding and those with panic or a specific phobia had no pathologic hoarding. Eleven percent of individuals who had a diagnosis of OCD, 14% with social anxiety disorder, and 27% of those with GAD self-reported compulsive hoarding. Both OCD and GAD patients had higher hoarding scores than the other groups.
Compulsive hoarding affects patients' work, family, and social life with families indicating the greatest problem. And it appeared to the researchers that there is a strong link to depression. Other than this interesting finding, the researchers did not offer any indications as to why those with social anxiety or GAD engaged in hoarding.
If we consider that hoarding may be an indication of a need to protect from unforeseen calamities, it would stand to reason that both those with social anxiety or GAD would feel a need to hoard. Individuals with GAD, perhaps, just like those with OCD may find the world an uncertain and unfriendly place where hoarding plays a role in providing protection from the whims of life.
The study was reported at the 2006 annual convention of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and also appeared in Clinical Psychiatry News, May 2006, 34(5), 33.
Related Topics: Bird Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Clue to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Technorati Tags: hoarding, pack-rat, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD
10 Comments:
I HOARD AT TIMES I FEEL TRAPPED HELD CAPTIVE BY MY MESSY HOUSE IM UNSURE HOE TO GET HELP
this is a very sad problem, but i'll bet you are really good at alot things. if we just try to make these areas look better, we do feel accomplishment. I've suffered with this problem all my life.. try to be good to yourself, things could be much worse!
my grandmother has the same problem. there are some places on web md that help with that sort of thing. look into them because if you fall or something nobody would know or be able to help. good luck
If you need help, go and talk to your doctor, tell them you may have obsessive compulsive disorder. There is help. Dr. C
my older sister, age 59, is a hoarder. she has been doing this forever. never throws anything away and her house is a disaster.
where can i go to find help for her.
what about a child who has to have everything, I mean everything from other family members. Is worse after a parents death. Says they are the only one who should have it all and is very violent about it if you take even something small. The child has never offered any assistance to family at all, but doesn't see that as a reaon to be reasonable.Sad
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doc_guero,
Thank you for your comment. For privacy reasons, we remove research requests from the comments here on WebMD.
My step-son (4 yr old) has been taking items and hiding them under his pillow or bed almost every day. They are random items such as my make-up, toothpaste, his sisters deodorant, kitchen utensils, notebooks and nailpolish. It has increasingly become a problem and I don't know where to go to figure it out and stop it. Help!
I have a problem with my 21 year old daughter. She has had OCD since the 4th grade. I took her to councelling when she was 14 but she would not talk and became beligerent. Now she is in college and it went from being germaphobic to any kind of bug, and she is steadily getting worse. Myself and her sister are at our wits end. She is always negative, and argumentative, jumping on anything we say starting arguments with everyone, constantly complaining and making life miserable for anyone around her. She called me nearly hysterical at 3 am because of a water bug! She yells at me and her sister, screams at people when she drives, and can't keep friends. She is a beautiful young lady but can't get a boyfriend because she is too demanding and gets mean with them. How can I make her see she needs serious professional help? She absolutely refuses to seek help. And I am afraid her ocd is spiraling out of control. HELP! I don't know what to do, talking doesn't help. She's barely getting by in college, her room she shares an apartment with her sister looks like a cyclone hit it, now she is trying to bribe me to clean it for her, but I refused. How can I help her? I am worried to death about it. I have anxiety attacks and got help. Her younger sister had them and a less case of ocd and is getting help. My mother was psychotic and a hoarder and had severe ocd and killed herself with drugs, how can I protect my daughter when she refuses to help herself?
Thank you
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