[For those who have friends, family or colleagues with OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, may be actively concealed by the sufferer due to fears of stigmatisation; or even utterly unknown to the afflicted.]
Hoarding of items may be an independent disorder. It may also be a symptom of OCD. In sum, the emotions associated with the hoarding are bad/negative/corrosive. The article by Fugen Neziroglu* makes a useful distinction between collectors and hoarders. The former glow with their often well-arranged collections. This in my interpretation means they master the objects instead of being mastered by them. The article has supportive references from the Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.~
Anecdotal evidence from Bess Cunningham [OCD and Me: My unconventional Journey through Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (2013). Planta Press. Liverpool. p.104 – 105] indicate that some people gather discarded items or refuse disposing them because they feel that they might require them in future or that if they fail to take the item and store it “a disaster would strike” their family. Thus, there is great fear and/or anxiety.
Solutions (to hoarding) according to Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) eventually involve external pressure from a committed and united social circle until the “hoarder cannot hide or minimize the problem.”^ [Writer’s note: As with any resolution, do seek a qualified professional’s opinion first as each patient is unique.] Regardless, communication with the hoarding individual is to be “nonconfrontational and nonjudgmental”.^ At the very least, this limits conflict.
*Hoarding: The Basics. https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/hoarding-basics. ADAA. (Accessed 4 Oct 2017).
~ Hoarding. (No date). https://www.imh.com.sg/wellness/page.aspx?id=1775. (Accessed 4 Oct 2017). “…classification in the DSM 5, a person with Hoarding Disorder:
• …great difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of … actual value
• Experiences distress when discarding the items…
• Accumulates… until they congest and clutter living areas
• Shows significant social and occupational impairment… lack of self-care and increasingly unable to cope with daily living which inevitably affects self and others”
^Fugen Neziroglu. Staging an Intervention. https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/hoarding-basics/staging-intervention. ADAA. (Accessed 5 Oct 2017).
Side note: “Hoarding in an Asian Population: Prevalence, Correlates, Disability and Quality of Life”, conducted by IMH’s Research Division (part of 2010 Singapore Mental Health Study) – 2% of Singaporean adults have a lifetime prevalence (“Prevalence” is the proportion of a population who have (or had) a specific characteristic in a given time period – in medicine, typically an illness, a condition… – What is Prevalence? https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/index.shtml. National Institute of Mental Health, US. <No date>) for hoarding; for major depressive disorders the prevalence is 5.8 %; with OCD it is 3%.
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