If you are considering whether or not to seek help for yourself or someone else with Hoarding Disorder, stop for a moment and consider the effects of this mental disorder if it is left untreated:
Loss of Relationships
Hoarding is a mental disorder that often allows sufferers to hide its existence or severity very successfully. Typically, people with Hoarding Disorder do not wish it to be known to their friends and family that they have this problem. One of the first things that happens to hoarders is that they begin to break off close relationships with others. Sometimes they are able to maintain jobs, marriages, child-rearing and other outward signs of a normal life, even as their homes fill with items and become less and less functional.
Poor Living Environment and Homelessness
While each hoard is different, most extreme cases lead to homes that are in a state most would consider substandard. In fact, homes of hoarders are often condemned by municipal and county governments because of the danger to those living in them. A home that is overfilled with possessions is nearly impossible to clean or maintain. After decades of hoarding, homes are often in such disrepair that demolition is the only option. There are examples of people living in houses infested with vermin, unrepaired after fires, storm damage or general degradation of the property, and even living outside of their homes in tents or makeshift shelters because they can no longer access their own homes.
Once a home has been condemned, the combination of loss of a home and the previous loss of relationships can quickly lead a person down the path to homelessness.
Loss of Children
For hoarders with young children in the home, there is a definite danger to the child's welfare and well being. It is not uncommon for young children to be taken from the home of a hoarder by Child Protective Services or similar organizations.
Often adult children who grew up with hoarding parents will leave their home as soon as possible in order to find a more stable and healthy living environment. Sometimes the parent/child relationship is permanently damaged by the years of dysfunctional living.
New or Worsening Depression
Many who deal with hoarding live in a state of depression long before the hoarding behavior takes over their lives. But the poor living conditions, loss of friendships and familial relationships, loss of jobs and other effects of hoarding can make this worse with every passing year.
Poor Health
One major symptom of hoarding is the loss of functionality in a home. If a kitchen is unable to be used because of accumulated possessions, the people living in the home may be forced to get their food from outside sources. Often the choices made in this situation are for fast, cheap food that is bad for the health of those involved. Similarly, if a house has no functioning bathroom due to hoarding, it becomes very difficult to maintain proper hygiene. A house filled with possessions is also more likely to be infested with rodents or insects, and animal hoarders are usually unable to properly clean up after the large number of animals under their care. All of these situations can lead to worsening health for the inhabitants of a hoarding home.
Financial Struggles
The most common method of gathering possessions for those who hoard is by simply buying them. Hoarders often frequent garage sales, estate sales, resale shops and the like. Some of them visit these places and purchase items on a daily basis. Many of the items purchased end up lost in the pile having never been used. Some of these people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars acquiring new items. This can be a serious burden on their financial situation.
People living in hoarder situations often have trouble with organization skills. While this clearly applies to their possessions, it is also commonly a problem for their time management. A person who is unable to make it to work on time and in a clean, correct state of hygiene and dress will not be able to maintain employment for long. Couple this potential for job loss with the ongoing expenditure of continued acquisition mentioned above and you have a perfect recipe for financial problems.
Death
In the most extreme cases hoarding can actually lead to the death of those involved. This can occur due to illness contracted from the filthy living conditions. Another very real possibility is a situation in which someone in the hoarder's home has a medical emergency, and paramedics are unable to reach them or extract them from the home in a timely manner because of the accumulated possessions. If a fire were to break out in a hoarder's home, not only do the huge numbers of items provide fuel for the fire, but they also make it difficult or impossible for inhabitants to escape with their lives. Depression worsened or brought on by hoarding can sometimes lead to suicide. In the most extreme cases, such as the case of the Collyer Brothers mentioned elsewhere on this site, people can actually be trapped or crushed by the vast amounts of possessions inside a home.
Every case of hoarding is different, and no two will follow an exact course if left untreated. It is impossible to list all the possible effects of hoarding disorder here. However, there is little doubt that hoarding and its effects continually worsen throughout the years as it goes untreated. Please follow the links in the menu at the top of the page to find resources to help yourself or someone else who is suffering with this disorder.
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