What is hoarding disorder?
Hoarding disorder is a mental health condition in which a person feels a strong need to save a large number of items, whether they have monetary value or not, and experiences significant distress when attempting to get rid of the items. The hoarding impairs their daily life.
Typical hoarded items include newspapers, magazines, household goods and clothing. Sometimes, people with hoarding disorder accumulate a large number of animals, which are often not properly cared for.
Hoarding disorder can lead to dangerous clutter. The condition can interfere with your quality of life in many ways. It can cause people stress and shame in their social, family and work lives. It can also create unhealthy and unsafe living conditions.
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Is hoarding an anxiety disorder?
While hoarding disorder is classified as being part of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) spectrum, which is an anxiety disorder, hoarding disorder is a distinct condition.
Previously, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the standard classification of mental disorders produced by the American Psychiatric Association, classified hoarding as a subtype of OCD.
However, healthcare providers were encountering people with hoarding behaviors who didn’t have any other mental health conditions. After more research, hoarding disorder was included as an isolated condition, in the OCD spectrum, in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which is the most recent edition.
What is the difference between hoarding and collecting?
Hoarding items and collecting items are distinct behaviors.
Collecting normally involves saving certain types of items, such as comic books, currency or stamps. You’d carefully choose these items and typically organize them in a certain way. Collecting items in this way doesn’t negatively impact your daily life.
Hoarding doesn't involve organization of the items in a way that makes them easy to access or use. People with hoarding disorder often hoard items that have little or no monetary value, such as pieces of paper or broken toys. The hoarding also negatively impacts their daily life.
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Who does hoarding disorder affect?
Hoarding disorder often begins during adolescence and gradually worsens with age, causing significant issues by the mid-30s.
Hoarding disorder is more likely to affect people over 60 years old and people with other mental health conditions, especially anxiety and depression.
How common is hoarding disorder?
Approximately 2% to 6% of people in the United States have hoarding disorder.
