Hoarding: Misconceptions Revealed

Common Myths about Hoarding Disorder

Hoarding is a disorder of the acquisition of items and the refusal to get rid of them due to an emotional attachment to things, despite it becoming so popular nowadays, here are the most common hoarding fictions and facts.

#1: Hoarding is the same thing as Collecting

While hoarding and collecting seem to be commonly confused, they are distinctly different from one another; collectors tend to organize the things they acquire and display them in an artistic manner while hoarders are never so proud of their collections, refuse to throw away trivial things that they rarely and most likely will never use, and face an issue of the mess preventing them from living ordinary due to the space taken by the amount of stuff they have, like move around or walk freely.

#2: Hoarders are lazy

While it’s commonly believed that hoarders are lazy, and incapable of cleaning up or decluttering, the main reason behind hoarding is actually their emotional attachment to the stuff they acquaint.

#3: Hoarders are unaware of the disarray

While most people may assume that people with hoarding disorder are oblivious to the mess resulting from the junk they possess, yet the truth is that they are simply incapable of determining the necessity of things, they seem to find importance and invent a use in each item they own.

#4: Hoarding is more likely to affect older people

According to the International OCD Foundation, hoarding disorder can affect all ages equally, in fact, hoarding behaviors can start in the early teens and most likely to appear in the adult years.

#5: Hoarding appeared only recently

While hoarding hasn’t got attention except for recently, it has been recognized since the 1940’s, dating back to the case of the Collyer brothers, who kept hoarding until they buried themselves in their mansion and died without the knowledge of anyone.