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.