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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
13 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
I am a retired therapist and I have a friend who is both schizophrenic and a hoarder. She is in her early sixties, morbidly obese and has trouble walking. I have known other schizophrenics who were also hoarders and am wondering if there is a connection. My friend takes medication for schizophrenia but is in total denial of the hoarding behavior. She claims she simply isn't a good housekeeper and that's fine with her--she calls it a choice she's made and it's OK because she lives alone. On top of the hoarding, her home is basically filthy, particularly the bathroom and kitchen. She has mice living in her furniture but refuses to get rid of the furniture. She had surgery a couple of years ago and a small army of friends spent days cleaning just so it was sanitary enough for her to come home to. That caused her enormous anxiety as does any offer to help her de-clutter. Now her house is worse than even and smells vile. That I got from simply standing in her doorway. It's basically impossible to go into her house because there's no place to walk and she becomes very anxious that you might step on some of her papers. I am so hoping someone can help me with the words I can use to break through her denial. She is currently involved in a long-distance relationship with a woman who has what sounds like a lovely home. She has visited this woman several times and now the woman wants to come to my friend's home for a visit. My friend has told her lover that her house is "messy" but, of course, that doesn't begin to describe it. My friend's anxiety is increasing as her lover's visit grows closer. I'd like to help her, as would all her friends but she is totally resistant and any offer of help increases her anxiety. No one visits her--she always goes out. She does allow repair people in when necessary. And she keeps her blinds down day and night, all year long so her house is much like a cave because there is never any natural light.
I am also concerned about the danger of fire. I'd really like to hear from people who have experience with this situation--those who have helped or those who have been helped. Thanks in advance.
I'm 19 years old. I live at home with my parents and one of my brothers, who sadly is following my dad's footsteps. My dad is very mentally ill due to SEVERE hoarding. I've been watching my dad slowly ruin this family, and all of our relationships inside and outside of the house because of this. My mom and I have tried to clean our house but it seems impossible. If my dad sees us throw stuff away, he will get so infuriated he screams and has almost hit me. My dad will dig through the garbage after we throw things away and store it in his 'domain' or the garage, and we find it months later. Every single part of our property is absolutely bombarded with stuff. Almost every room upstairs is full, the entire basement from floor to ceiling, every possible square foot of our garage (literally you cannot see an inch of the floor or even the walls), both of our two sheds are plump full, and just to top that off, we have a public storage center full as well and junk all over out backyard and sides of the house. He somehow thinks we need all this stuff. I cannot support myself because I am a full time student, but this way of living has lead to my failing in high school and now college, I have NO friends because no one can EVER come over and almost no hope for a boyfriend. It's ruined my life and I'm lost to what I can do to change this.
brittany, i hope you read this soon as i am getting help for myself soon. just go to a search engine website and type in hoarders help. i know of one site called steri-clean that not only help hoarders get rid of clutter but also assist pointing you in the right direction for therapy for hoarding. they seemed most understanding and are actually technicians at helping hoarders. one lady i spoke to for steri-clean made me feel like they understand what i'm going thru and that they are there to help. i wish you the best of luck! and please try to understand it is a mental disorder, i can't for the life of me understand why i do this and i'm only 26! i'm trying to nip it in the bud before my kids get older and they suffer from it.
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