I have recently been reading some news articles, talking about the science and history behind compulsive hoarding and collecting. I found a particularly interesting article which touches upon historical references, as well as a social.
"If you had opened the front door of Lee Shuer's apartment in the early 2000s, you would have encountered a narrow hallway made even narrower by all kinds of random stuff: unnervingly tall stacks of books and papers, cardboard boxes full of assorted knickknacks, and two hot pink salon hair dryer chairs with glass domes suspended from their arched necks. Sidling down the hallway to the right, you would have reached Shuer's bedroom. The door would have opened just wide enough for you to squeeze inside, where you would have seen mounds of stuff three to four feet high on the floor, bed and every available surface. A typical heap might have contained clothes, a violin case, a big box of Magic Markers, record albums, a trumpet, a framed picture, a package of socks, three dictionaries, two thesauruses and a pillow."
Lee Shuer was documented by this article, in an attempt to bring to light the process of letting go of possessions when you have hoarding since your childhood. Shuer began collecting when he was younger, and his collection grew in 2000 when he began spending time at car boot sales and thrift shops. He felt a sense of comfort and relaxation, which is something one of my subjects has commented on when I have been speaking to them.
"Today, Shuer, 38, lives with his wife Becca in a three-bedroom house in Easthampton that Shuer describes as 85 percent decluttered. When they first moved into the house in 2006 Shuer brought just about everything from his previous apartments with him. His collection completely filled one of the bedrooms on the second story, so that barely an inch of floor space was visible; it spilled out along the stairways, found resting spots on top of the fridge and kitchen cabinets, crowded the living room and claimed half the basement. Now, their living room needs only a little tidying here and there when guests come over. The stairwell leading to the second story is completely free of mess. The kitchen is for kitchen stuff. And Shuer is making good progress on the basement. Through an innovative series of peer-organized workshops designed to help people with excessive clutter—the Buried in Treasures program—Shuer has learned to catch himself in the act of acquiring something he does not have the space for, to challenge his beliefs about the true value of his possessions, and to gradually get rid of things he does not need without mourning their loss."
Cognitive behavioural therapy is something that people with obsessive hoarding can go under to help them with their habit, but is something that has not been offered on the NHS or through private medical treatment to my subjects. Although their collecting is not severe, I struggle to understand how medical doctors and people cannot refer these people to small trials of this therapy, to combat the issue earlier before it becomes out of control, like some cases do.
"Most psychiatrists would diagnose Shuer with compulsive hoarding, which is defined as the excessive accumulation of stuff and the refusal to discard it, resulting in problematic clutter. In addition to interfering with daily activities such as cooking and sleeping, extreme clutter often increases health risks from poor sanitation, makes it more difficult to get out of the house in a fire or other emergency and puts the hoarder in danger of eviction. Compulsive hoarders often have other mental illnesses as well: 50 percent have major depressive disorder and 48 percent have either anxiety or social phobia, according to various surveys. In recent years the general public has become more aware of hoarding than ever before, thanks in part to shows such as A&E's Hoarders and TLC's Hoarding: Buried Alive. Many researchers and hoarders—who often prefer to call themselves collectors or clutter bugs—argue, however, that such shows focus on extreme examples and that their sensationalism obscures the reality of day-to-day life for most hoarders. Studies published in the last 10 years have changed the way psychologists and psychiatrists think about compulsive hoarding and contradicted a number of popular assumptions about people with extensive clutter."
Obviously, some people have large and excessive collections of items, like my subjects, and they do not interfere with their homes on a large scale, but simply fill one box, or one cupboard, or one room. As mentioned previously, the media can create a negative trait of these people, branding 100% of these people as unhealthy, and suffering from a mental disorder. Although it is true that half of these people suffer from anxiety or depression, there is 50% who do not, and still lead healthy lives.
Freud and other psychologists ran hoarding studies back in the daily 1900's, especially on the case of the Collyer brothers, whom I spoke about in a previous post. The article reads, "In truth, many hoarders live relatively typical lives, hold steady jobs and maintain ties to friends and family, even if their habits create tension." All it takes is one study to show a high percentage of people who have excessive collections to be ruining their lives, and lives of other people they love and care for, for all collectors and hoarders to be tarnished with the same brush.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/real-world-hoarding/
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