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I'm Dr. Greg Chasson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Towson University.
Today, I'm going to be talking about, "what is compulsive hoarding?"
I'd like you to envision something first.
Imagine your most prized sentimental possession.
Maybe trophy from when you were a kid,
a love letter or mixed compilation tape from when you were teenager,
something that you really care about. Now imagine that you throw that into a metal
trash can doused it with gasoline and burnt it to ash.
I want you to sit with those thoughts and feelings for a second.
What you're experiencing is exactly how individuals with hoarding feel
when you ask them to toss our their possessions.
The difference between a compulsive hoarder and somebody that doesn't have hoarding,
is that they tend to experience things more frequently,
more intensely,
and experience it with possessions that others find valueless and meaningless.
Hoarding is a psychiatric condition,
it's characterized by four main features.
Acquisition difficulties: they tend to get things at a much higher clip than other people.
They have trouble discarding things.
And those two things lead to the third feature, which is clutter.
Living spaces are so filled with possessions that it's a fire hazard, a tripping hazard,
or they might lead to pest infestations.
The fourth feature is that is causes significant distress or impairment
to the self or others.
Hoarding is actually far more common than we originally imagined.
Four percent of the population seem to experience meaningful hoarding symptoms.
to put that into perspective, that's six times more prevalent
than Autism Spectrum Disorders, which seems to be getting a lot more attention lately.
And it's about half as prevalent as diabetes mellitus, which by most accounts is the modern epidemic.
So, it's very common, very debilitating.
If you suspect that you have to compulsive hoarding, or someone you love experiences
compulsive hoarding,
please seek professional help from a cognitive behavioral therapist who specializes in hoarding.