Causes

 

 

Like many mental disorders, Compulsive Hoarding is very complex and it is impossible to point to a single cause.  However, there are a number of genetic and experiential factors that can predispose a person to hoarding behaviors.  Only be following a "biopscyhosocial" approach to diagnosing the disorder can we hope to come close to understanding its many facets.  The following multi-dimensional characteristics will apply to most people who suffer from Hoarding Disorder:

 

4 Key Characteristics

 

1 - Genetic & Familial Vulnerabilities:

        - History of anxiety or depression, both individually and in the family

        - Family history of hoarding

        - A strong sense of perfectionism

 

2 - Difficulties with Information Processing

        - Problems with attention, which may include symptoms similar to ADHD

        - Difficulty with memory retention

        - Trouble with categorization

        - Difficulty with decision making

        - Desire to avoid unpleasant stimuli, such as dealing with their accumulated items

 

3 - Intense Emotional Attachments to Inanimate Objects

        - Personifying nonliving things

        - Strong feelings of grief at the thought of getting rid of objects

        - Feeling a sense of safety due to being surrounded by belongings

 

4 - Distaste for Wastefulness

        - Strong desire to not be wasteful by throwing out items

        - A feeling of lost opportunity to use or make money from items that are thrown away

        - The need to save things to help retain the memories they represent
        - Powerful appreciation for the perceived beauty of an object

 

Age of Onset

 

Most people who hoard show the initial characteristics at a very young age.  In fact, children as young as three years old have shown the initial signs of hoarding behavior.  Because of their lack of ability to purchase things for themselves, in very young children this sometimes presents itself as intense attachments to nonliving things.  Think of the children who have overpowering attachments to a favorite blanket or a teddy bear. 

 

The average age for the true onset of hoarding behavior is 13.  As a person ages, their ability to purchase things for themselves, their access to a place under their own control in which to store the objects and the level of their own mental disorder increases.  Hoarding tends to grow in severity as a person progresses from young adulthood and reaches its worst state in a person's fifties or sixties. 

 

Typically hoarding does not usually appear suddenly, especially in people over 40 years of age.  While it may seem to happen this way, the person will usually have always exhibited hoarding tendencies that are only now presenting themselves at a clinically significant level due to some other confounding factor or factors in their life.

 

The Effects of Loss

 

Loss is a normal part of the human experience.  Everyone suffers the loss of a friend, loved one, relationship, treasured belonging or other important thing during a lifetime.  In fact, most of us will suffer many such losses over the course of our existence.  Loss by itself does not cause hoarding.  If this were so, there would not be a single person alive who was not a hoarder.  However, the particular predispositions that might lead a person to hoarding behaviors and Hoarding Disorder also lead that person to deal poorly with loss.  The history of depression and anxiety, the desire to avoid unpleasant stimuli and problems with attention (among others) may all lead to an increase in hoarding behavior after a person suffers a loss.

 

Many people with hoarding tendencies or predispositions are able to keep the behavior at a manageable level while they are busy with marriage and the raising of children.  Once the children are grown (which is often seen as a loss in itself), and a marriage has fallen apart or a spouse has died, the hoarding behavior may become much worse.  This is only one example of the type of loss a person may experience that may cause an increase in hoarding behavior.  Others could include the death of a parent, a falling out with a close friend, the loss of a job, the death of a beloved pet or a financial downturn.  Both the purchasing and the hoarding of items can be used to soothe and escape from the painful feelings brought on by these losses.