Hoarding Disorder, 3

Estimates for the United States are that 2-6% of the general population have a hoarding disorder. Around 200,000 cases are diagnosed per year. Risk factors include blood relatives with the disorder; Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACE’s; personal vulnerability due to avoidant personality traits’ deficits in processing attention and memory information; Maladaptive cognitive content related to the meaning of possessions and one’s emotional attachment to their possessions; tendencies toward perfectionism, indecisiveness, procrastination, difficulties in planning and making decisions, and emotional reinforcement associated with pleasure in acquisition and saving and anxiety or discomfort in discarding or giving away.