What is Hoarding? A College Student Learning About Hoarding and Sharing in Her experiences

Hoarding Misunderstood

By: Jennifer Bryan

Millions of people in the United States are hoarders. One may hoard books, papers, knick knacks, clothing, food, even animals. The average person will view this as pure laziness, sloppiness or neglect. And what they don’t understand is that hoarding is a mental disorder.

Some will have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and it may or may not be genetic.
Even families who have dealt with a hoarder for many years may be extremely frustrating. They may have separated themselves from the hoarder. This can be from countless attempts to help their hoarding loved one with cleaning, financial help or embarrassment as far back as from childhood.

Socially, hoarders suffer greatly as does the rest of the family. Spending holidays together is non existent. There are no sleepovers for children nor friends of any age that come over for visits. The hoarder and their family can barely move inside the home much less have anyone else over. If the hoarder has young children they risk losing them, even losing the home because of the excessive clutter..." More