Millions of people struggle with hoarding tendencies each day and it’s far too common for them to meet judgment, annoyance, and ridicule from their peers — rather than understanding and support. At FORT WORTH HOARDING CLEANUP, we recognize that education is the first step to truly helping someone. Before we can help someone clean out their home and restore it back to a livable condition, we need to try to understand what’s going on inside their head. Hoarding is far more complicated than simply loving clutter or being messy — it’s a disorder that stems from various forms of mental illness. If you’ve ever wanted to understand why people hoard or how to help a loved one struggling with hoarding disorder, this article is for you.
The American Psychiatric Association
Hoarding disorder is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as an official mental health condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or “DSM-5” for short. But hoarding tendencies can also be seen in people who struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), trauma disorders (like PTSD), and many other forms of mental illness. This connection matters because it illustrates that hoarding is not simply a choice someone makes — it’s a reflection of pain that many hoarders are experiencing.
If you have ever tried to force someone to throw things away that they want to keep, you already know that these items give hoarders a sense of safety, control, or happiness that they are not receiving elsewhere in their life. Once we can understand hoarding as a symptom of mental illness, we can swap out frustration for compassion.
Hoarder items can become attached to memories
Did you know that hoarders often experience grief, anxiety, or panic when faced with parting with their possessions? Accumulated items can become attached to memories, usefulness, and identity. Telling someone to get rid of their stuff when these emotions are happening is like telling someone with cancer to just “get better” — except we understand cancer, but ridicule those suffering from mental illness. Mental health professionals explain that most hoarders experience extreme indecisiveness, fear of making mistakes, and even perfectionist traits. People who hoard often express feelings of loneliness and suffer from depression as a result of their isolation. Understanding these painful emotions can help friends, family, and service professionals approach hoarding with empathy instead of exhaustion.
Why do some people hoard items? Hoarding Disorder
Why do people hoard? According to leading researchers in the psychology of hoarding, we process information differently than non-hoarders. We tend to have a hard time categorizing objects as we collect them. We experience high volumes of distress when making decisions about our things. Some hoarders begin their behavior after experiencing a significant loss like the death of a loved one, divorce, monetary issues, or traumatic event. Filling your home with things can give you a sense of purpose or keep you feeling like someone you loved will still be there when you return. Others begin hoarding as children, sometimes due to neglect. If you grew up not knowing when the next meal would be, for example, you might think hoarding food is normal or hoarding everything is necessary for survival. Just like every brain is wired differently, there is not one sole reason that triggers hoarding disorder — you have to look at each hoarder as an individual to begin to understand why they do it.
Mental wellness isn’t linear, and for someone who hoards, it can feel nearly impossible to maintain. Hoarding often brings about feelings of shame, guilt, and frustration. If someone you know struggles with hoarding, they may be afraid to let you clean their home because they’ll judge them or take things they wanted to keep. One of the many things I’ve learned while helping clients as a professional hoarding cleaner is that mental wellness starts with feeling safe. If someone doesn’t feel safe reaching out to a Professional Cleaning Service or Helpline for fear of being judged, they will never receive the help they need and deserve. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, better known as CBT, has proven to show great progress with clients who hoard. CBT works by directly challenging distortions in our thinking and changing our unhealthy behaviors and emotional responses.
Compassion and discretion
The best thing we can do to erase the stigma around hoarding is talk about it. When we open up the conversation about hoarding and mental illness with kindness and understanding, we are creating solutions for others that may be too ashamed or scared to speak up. Did you know that studies show anywhere from 2 to 6 percent of the population lives with hoarding disorder? Not only is it one of the most common mental illnesses, it’s also one of the least talked about and most stigmatized. Many hoarders also suffer from anxiety, depression, and even grief that has gone untreated by a professional. By shedding light on hoarding and mental illness with compassion, we can help others realize they need treatment, allow them to accept help, and begin their journey to healing both mentally and within their homes.
Would you want someone to come into your home and throw away all your personal items?
Imagine living in someone else’s shoes for a moment. How would you feel if you were told you couldn’t throw away a newspaper because that was like throwing away a piece of your soul? What if every item in your home had that kind of feeling attached to it? Hoarding disorder is not something we can simply understand by being told about it. If you want to understand hoarding, you have to feel empathy towards those who struggle with it. Ask yourself: How would I react if everyone reacted to me like my hoarding? With judgment and disgust? Empathy is the most critical thing you can have when dealing with someone you know who hoards. I promise you that when clients feel understood by their family members, friends, and service professionals, they are much more likely to seek help and recover from their hoarding tendencies.
Hoarding is a human issue caused by pain, trauma, and the desire to feel safe and loved. It’s not something you are born with — but for many hoarders, it develops over time as a way to cope with deep-rooted issues. By taking the time to understand hoarding and how it connects to mental illness, we can change the way our society perceives those struggling with hoarding tendencies. You are not alone if you or someone you know struggles with hoarding disorder; there are tons of resources out there to provide you or your loved one with the help that you both deserve. Let’s continue to spread kindness and understand one another a little bit better today.
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