Hoarding, what is it?

My previous article encompassed the show "Hoarders" from A&E network helping to clean out a resident's home from South Hill neighborhood of Bellingham, but what constitutes a hoarder?

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has six criteria to for fully diagnosing hoarding behavior. Although it is not in the main manual yet, hoarding disorder is being examined further. In short, the DSM-V defines a hoarder as “Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of the value others may attribute to these possessions.” The definition continues with the distress of discarding items as well as feeling the need t save items points to hoarding. In the case of an uncluttered space, only a third party’s intervention can spur the cleaning of said space. The symptoms cause distress on daily life. The full criteria and a list of questions to evaluate the severity of hoarding can be found here. DSM-V updated their definition on May 19, 2010.

                 

If you think you have hoarding, the International Obsessive-Compulsive DisorderFoundation offers assistance through education and support groups.

           

In the May 2011 issue of Journal of Clinical Psychology, the article Neuropsychological and Neural Correlated of Hoarding: a Practice-Friendly Review reports that hoarding can be a stand-alone condition, separate from OCD, dementia, brain damage, schizophrenia and autism. The article suggests that in the past hoarding has been associated with these disorders but now it has been present without any other symptoms.