Cluttering / Hoarding

LIVING IN A TOXIC LANDFILL; The Portrait of Squalor

“I can’t let that go…no, not that either….I might need that someday”. “No….that has a lot of sentimental meaning to me.”

“It wasn’t always this bad. My mother was a hoarder too and I swore I’d never be like her”.

“The anxiety gets so bad sometime. How do I let go of something that may have monetary value.”

“When I’m depressed, I look around my house and wonder when I began to bury myself”. “It’s my safety and my pain wrapped in a toxic landfill.”

DOES THIS SOUND LIKE YOU OR A LOVED ONE?

Hoarding has three components;

*Acquiring possessions compulsively-compulsive buying, or collecting free things.

*Saving all these possessions and never discarding.

*Not organizing and maintaining all the saved possessions.

The most common forms of hoarding are the following:
*Animal Hoarding
*Book Hoarding
*Collecting thrown out objects

Most psychologists today see hoarding as an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). From antidepressants to SSRI’s accompanied with traditional psychotherapy is perhaps the strongest model for success.

Some studies suggest that the origin of the hoarding behavior is associated with an attachment disorder which is primarily caused by poor parent-child relationship during the first three years of life.

Fortunately there is help for a brighter future.

Talk to me about it. I have worked with dozens of clutterers; witnessed the shame they often experienced; the fear of home visits; the anxiety of creating change.

If I can impart one piece of information I’ve learned, it is that your “inside living space” often reflects the chaos that lives within you.