Tips To Determine Am I A Hoarder

By Kathleen Wright


Homes will naturally accumulate items and minor clutter but these goods are eventually organized and tossed without any stress or emotion attached to it. With hoarding, the accumulation of goods become excessive and disruptive, continuing to the point where people cannot part with useless items and live in a health hazard. To answer, am I a hoarder, it is important to learn how to spot the symptoms.

The presence of hoarding will consume your life and affect both the hoarder and family members or loved ones. The purchase of goods or collection of items that are not useful and cannot be tossed, becomes unhealthy and obsessive making it increasingly difficult to manage. The space inside and outside your house is taken over and general lifestyle becomes compromised.

If you suspect being a hoarder or know someone who is affected by hoarding, it is important to receive a fair psychological assessment and to take steps to seek assistance. Hoarding is characterized by obsessive compulsive symptoms that leave individuals to hold onto goods to relieve their anxiety. To determine whether hoarding has affected your life requires a look into the psychology behind the behaviors.

If you are slowly building up items that are no longer useful or under the impression it will be useful some time in the future, your home is eventually filled with stuff. Living spaces are taken over by furniture, goods and food that leave open areas consumed and create health risk as debris forms. When clutter reaches epic proportions, even bedrooms are taken over and many people sleep between the clutter.

While many people accumulate many things that could remain in large heaps in and around the home, the hoarder is unorganized. Keeping a significant number of goods that does not constitute hoarding includes useful items and knowledge of where these items are located. Hoarders simply pile and pile objects without knowledge of where specific items are located and cannot organize their clutter.

Many types of goods are acquired by hoarders from plastics and ornaments to clothing, papers and even pets. These types of goods can remain inside or outside the property but it becomes overwhelming and the lack of the appropriate management can cause major distress in every day living. It is important to seek help when hoarding is suspected because of the health risks it poses over time.

Such OCD conditions involve high levels of anxiety when attempting to remove much of the clutter and the experience of being unable to let go. Families may seek assistance for their loved ones who are living in untidy and unhygienic surrounds leaving them in severe distress. Attempting to implement such management and removal procedure without a professional can lead to much difficulty and dysfunction.

The occurrence of hoarding will take over your life and while cluttered corners may start small, it quickly builds-up and becomes overwhelming to manage. A professional therapist specializing in OCD and related conditions assists in addressing the underlying anxiety and stress such behaviors cause. Finding ways of managing belongings and goods in a healthy manner can avoid such difficulties.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment