Hoarding Disorder, 4

“Your comments on hoarding disorder as a mental illness are spot on. My parents don’t even want to talk to us for fear we will try to get them to clean up the environment and make them get rid of something as useless as an empty Kleenex box!”

Personally, I recommend that family members do not attempt to manage this issue, as the likelihood of fractured relationships is high. They are often embarrassed, sometimes malnourished, and extremely indecisive. Hoarders may come to the attention of authorities because of healthy and safety concerns related to their living conditions. I suggest that social service be asked to make a site visit, a psychiatrist evaluates them for a potential diagnosis of hoarding, and a competent  counselor or case worker help the elderly individuals to work through this problem. As family members, you can be cheerful, and loving and verbally reward them about how spacious things now look and how you enjoy visiting with them.

 Diagnostic criteria include:

1 – a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value

2 - the difficulty is because of a personal perceived need to save the items and the associated distress when trying to discard them

3 – this results in more items that clutter living areas and are stacked on every available space. This interferes with their intended use and a healthy living environment unless third parties intervene.

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