Blog #11 - Conclusion

At the begining of this project I had a question to answer: "Predict how hoarders start to over consume things? And why is it so hard to get rid of their belongings?"

So now after all the research and finding out how a hoarder's brain works.. This is definitely not as simple as I thought it was going to be.

Hoarder's have this mind set.. this voice in their head saying, "Ya know.. if I can't make this decision perfectly, then I am not going to make it at all." That is how hoading becomes such a problem.. because the hoarders themselves don't even want to deal with the mess they created. Would you? No I don't think so. I don't even like cleaning my room...

It all really beings with a person afraid of living in their own skin.. that making one wrong mistake could potentially be disaterious. They are litterally perfectionists. Perfectionists that can't live a day without having to make a choice, but will they actually make the choice is the real the question. It is so common among hoarders to put off something until "tomorrow".

 But tomorrow never comes.

Hoarding becomes a habit, a rut they can't get out of. They keep telling themselves, "I dont have a problem, I dont have a problem.." But really all that procrastination is what makes it so hard to move on, to get rid of things that are worthless. But when it comes down to it.. it all really depends on the person and what kind of help they are receiving, that is how you get over something of this monstrosity. With the right kind of help and support from friends and family.

Blog #10 - How Can Hoarding Be Solved?

Hoarding is not something to take lightly. It is not something that people who are un-educated should judge, just by looking inside the doorstep of a hoarder’s home.  It really isn’t that simple. And so it won’t be that simple to solve this mystery behind closed doors.

The truth of the matter is that hoarders assign too much value to their possessions, making it difficult or impossible to decide to get rid of those possessions.

When you think about it hoarders are treated differently than others who don’t hoard in society. They are treated with less respect and are televised and broadcasted. You wouldn’t broadcast a normal person would you? No, because that’s what I mean. If everyone wants to solve and help hoarders into a hoarding free lifestyle, then we have got to start treating hoarders as normal people; that is what they are, isn’t it? They are more than just some label or stamp..

But other than just treating hoarders like us, we also have to understand that a hoarder brain is wired differently. So because of that different wiring.. we can’t just simply “solve” hoarding with a snap of a finger. No it takes commitment and mental health experts and the more involved in supporting the hoarder, recovery time is faster and better.

It’s kind of like coaxing a turtle out of it’s shell. It takes time; it might take all day. Who knows, it depends on who the person is and how bad the situation is.

Blog #9 - Why Can't Hoarders Get Rid of Anything?

Suggestive research gives the impression that a healthy person would not include a hoarder. I wouldn’t disagree with it, although the hoarders themselves probably do.

Hoarders are often in denial. That is why it has become such a big problem, because hoarders have become immune to living in chaos. But there is also another reason why:

A hoarder’s brain acts differently than the brain of a non-hoarder. And that difference is the part of the brain that controls decision-making. It is often seen that hoarders are perfectionists of their own lives. They want to control every aspect of it, and when a hoarder is uncertain about anything, the brain automatically recognizes that as fear, pushing to the back of their mind, as well as the back of that cabinet in the hallway. Or somewhere where that specific object can be dealt with later, or never in a hoarder’s case.

For those who hoard, it becomes a vicious cycle, one that is very difficult to break. This cycle can become so overpowering that it basically takes over a person’s life. It destroys a hoarder’s confidence and self esteem, and also their social life. Simple things become a daily struggle. Things like feeling they can’t invite someone over for a cup of tea, because the way they live is unacceptable or socially wrong. And it is. When hoarders feel they can’t invite guests over, the motivation to clean, maybe even a little disappears and a worse situation appears.

So to answer the question: Why can’t hoarders get rid of anything?

They can, but it takes time and a lot of mental intuition and self motivation. They need a stress free environment to help get back on the track of becoming ‘hoarder’ free.

 

 

Blog #8 - Is There Something Holding a Hoarder Back From Positive Progress?

We now know why hoarders hoard. So now we might ask this question; “Why can’t they just stop?”

It seems so simple. Just letting the syllables roll off your tongue without the slightest idea of what those string of words actually mean. But maybe hoarders ask themselves the exact same question..

Hoarding is just an annoying cycle of repetition. Repeating itself every day, until it becomes monotonous and boring.

Hoarders have nothing left after their life of hoarding has disappeared. That could be the culprit for holding a hoarder back from cleaning out their space, both physically and mentally. It might just take some convincing, or some other view on what is happening, or it could take a lot of work. It really all depends on who the person is, and what is going on in their head.

Fear is defiantly associated with the ‘after-math’ of a troubled hoarder. But why fear? Hoarders feel unsafe and unguarded without all this materialized belongings surrounding them. It literally drives them to the crazy house. Because of all those years in hiding or shame, it frightens the hoarders to come out in the open. Even being thrown back into society would be a scary event, not to mention all the things that remind them of their previous life; the life of hoarding.

So going back to the question of why can’t hoarders just throw the stuff out and move on. It really isn’t that simple. To the outside world it may be, but only because we have labeled and stereotyped this kind of mental disorder in several ways.

You may be thinking to yourself that hoarding is not a mental illness, but in fact it is. Anyone can be diagnosed as a compulsive hoarder. And like I mentioned before, it is something in a hoarders brain that helps them to believe items with absolutely no value or use, can be used.

 

Blog #7 - What is the Motivation behind Hoarding?

There really is no motivation behind hoarding. The outside world may think different, but hoarders can’t see any different. There is no DIFFRENT. 

Hoarding becomes a routine, something that they have just learned to live with. It has become part of them, they know nothing else. It has completely taken control. Controlling the way they live, thrive and breathe.

To the hoarder themselves, they find they are prisoners in an overwhelming rut of an addictive, uncontrollable substance. And that substance is the accumulation of basically everything. It’s like they need help, but don’t know where to find it. Or they want to actually get out of the habit they have obtained, usually over the past couple of years, but they can’t because for every two steps they take forward they take one step back. It would be a nightmare, to (a) be living amongst your own trash and (b) to be in this mental state of incapability to care for yourself without the stress of daily living. Wouldn’t it be absolutely horrifying, just to be in that position, and to know that you put yourself there?

That is how all hoarders feel, that they can’t go anywhere without all this trash and other worrisome things following right behind. And even if they work towards a cleaner lifestyle, that impulse will always be there to catch them if they fall.

 

Blog #6 - Who Does Hoarding Effect?

Hoarding affects all numbers of people. Men and women. Young and old. But the stuff they hoard really brings out some personality. Mainly it reflects what the person has had as a career, or their interests and hobbies. And other times it is just a strewn mess of inconspicuous, random items.

When you think of whom hoarding affects, normally the hoarder themselves comes to mind. But not only does hoarding affect just the hoarder. It affects everyone around them as well. Sometimes hoarders are older and have children living in the house. And it is proven that when a child is living around or with a hoarder, that child is more likely to become a compulsive hoarder, then a child who is not associated with hoarding. Just because a hoarder is the only one who seems to have the difficulty getting rid of things in the home, doesn’t mean that family members are not affected, because it definitely takes a toll on them as well.

With children under 10 living in a hoarding household, they fail to live a normal family life; with their family. The children witness their parents slowly slipping away into a pit of despair. And there is nothing they can do to help them. How would that make you feel? Probably absolutely horrible, because it definitely wouldn’t make you feel great. And not only does the social aspect shatter, but what about their health? It probably isn’t as good as it should be... With all the rodents and bugs creeping around, or what about garbage that piles up after all the years?

It truly is a sad and disgusting tale; to us. And what about family and friends who see the problem and what the consequences could be if help is not found.

Wouldn’t you worry if a close relative was in some deep destructive mess they couldn’t get themselves out of? Yeah? Of course, because the attachment of fear is close and comes along with worry.

 

Blog #5 - Diffrent Types Of Hoarding

Betcha didn’t know that there was more than one type of hoarding? Did you? Well don’t worry, I didn’t either.

Almost all types of hoarding fall under the same category. “Compulsive Hoarding”

Well what exactly does the word ‘compulsive’ mean?  Here is the definition:

Compulsive; a result from an irresistible urge, an urge that is against one’s conscious wishes.

Most hoarders have this distraught feeling towards realization of what they have been doing to themselves over a vast period of time. They really WANT to get rid of the habitual accumulation, but that want is usually overpowered by the lack of self control, or as some may say, “the need” to hoard their belongings.

There are so many ways that hoarding could be conceived and put under a ‘scientific term’. And there are several types of hoarding.

-          Animal hoarding

-          Bibliomania (Hoarding of books)/ Information Hoarder

-          Syllogomania (Hoarding of Trash or Garbage)

-          Larder Hoarding (Hoarding of Food)

-          Recyclers

-          Collectors

-          Shopaholics

 

Those are some of the many types of hoarding that put people just like you and me in situations they can’t get themselves out of. It is just a spinning top, going round and round and round. Until one day you burn out, and you can never get going again.

(Ps. That was the best analogy I could come up with..)

 

Blog #4 - What Causes Hoarding?

Like I mentioned earlier, hoarders have a different functioning brain then the people of non-hoarders. The topics under “Decision Making” are endless, but there are some specifics that fall into the category of hoarding. The compulsive hoarding factor results from problems with the brain, things like:

Information Processing;

 Hoarders often:

·         Find it difficult on deciding what is valuable and what is not.

·          Have trouble making decisions about what to do with items in their home.

·         Feel a strong sense of emotional attachment towards their possessions.

·         Have the need to be in control all the time, over everything in their life.

·         Control their feeling of anxiety by avoiding making the decision, or putting it off until later.

·         Emotionally stress over discarding or have to make a decision about discarding things

·         Want to keep everything in sight, or feel bothered if they see something they think they need, and that they can’t feel better until the item is theirs. 

And although we think we know what is going on in a hoarder’s brain, we don’t. We don’t see the affects that take place, the worry and dread that fills a hoarder’s mind 24/7. Above are some of the things that occur later in life of a person who will begin to hoard, but sometimes that is just not the case. Sometimes hoarding begins early in life. In children hoarding would look much different, then hoarding in a grown adult. It might be a child getting possessive over inanimate objects, or applying human characteristics to things that don’t need to be personified. Children will have extreme attachments to objects, to the point of saving them; just like an adult hoarder would.

Because basically:

People who hoard let inanimate objects take over their lives; and essentially ruin them.

 

Blog #3 - Why Do Hoarders Hoard?

After I think about it a while, tons of unanswerable questions pop up. Something like; why do hoarders hoard?

It may sound like an easy question, but in actual truth, it isn’t.

Try and ask a person that hoards, why they do it. They won’t be able to tell you.

It really is quite hard, because everything in their possession has some form of connection to their life, or to other people. Maybe a strong relationship they once had or a good feeling that a specific object brought upon them. So whatever the connection was, it was special. And now they have another something to add to their collection of stuff. Stuff they can’t get rid of because it holds that feeling or reminder of why it is there in the first place.

There are so many reasons why hoarders do what they do. Mainly it is something to do with the brain. It is a physiological way of thinking that mentally brainwashes them into thinking everything can be used for more then it’s original purpose. They desire to keep things that may be useful in the future, or maybe it’s because they want to preserve the memories that come with keeping something of little or no value.

So to think rationally; hoarders hoard because they find it pleasant to take things and store them for either later use, or simply just because they like to accumulate things.

Blog #2 - What is Hoarding?

So, what is hoarding? Because if I am going to go into detail, then we best know what the heck I’m talking about, right?

Hoarding is a specific pattern of behaviour that is well known and recognized as the excessive accumulation of stuff. Just stuff. Everything, from newspapers to televisions to animals or just plain old garbage. And the hoarder responsible is unwilling to get rid of it. Soon, it piles up, and up and up, until it kills you. Slowly but surely you dig yourself a hole to hell.

Hoarders can’t give anything away; they find it hard to give away a mismatched sock... for what purpose? I will never know. Researchers say that just thinking about cleaning up or just giving something of the slightest value away produces hoarders with anxiety. Putting it into perspective, most hoarders are perfectionists. They waste their time thinking about what to do with something until it stresses them out enough that they just decide to keep everything. To them, there are just so many possibilities that you could do with a sock. It could be used a makeshift mitten, or something to hold your spare change. And the thing with a hoarder is that they actually consider needing it at a later time.

 They call it preparation, we call it un-cleanliness.

 

Blog #1 - Introduction

 

Inquiry Question:

Predict how hoarders start to over consume things? And why is it so hard to get rid of their belongings?

In this AVID Major Inquiry Project, I will be discussing the wide spread topic of hoarding; all kinds of it. Some of which are under the umbrella of compulsive hoarding, and how most types of hoarding are greatly related with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).  Hopefully by the end of this project, you will see and understand the question we all ask before we are brought into this mess of information.

Why?

That is the simple question along with:

How?

 Doesn’t that simplicity scare you? How we brush it off as no big deal? When people are being trapped; literally, in the walls of their own mind as well as their home? Terrible is one word to describe it, but we will never understand the most of it unless we experience the difficulty of the horrifying situation at hand.

I will be showing what I learned through an essay and powerpoint (: