Compulsive Hoarding Disorder is often diagnosed with persons displaying traits associated with diseases such as OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) but Compulsive Hoarding is also seen in patients exhibiting other social disorders, including dementia, anxiety and depression. It’s thought that most of the social dysfunctions may actually be a result of the hoarding, which places emphasis for the afflited victim of the disease’s lifestyle (ie: they’re embarrassed or scared to allow anyone into their lives for fear of being found out as a hoarder.) I personally feel that it’s possible that if that is so, conversely, these people could be hoarding simply to have an excuse not to have to have social graces associated with “normal” psychological relationships.
Whether that is the case, in answer to your question as to whether I’ve personally known anyone that was a hoarder as “bad” as those people on the television, no. But with that said, I will say too that I feel that is only because they were “caught” while in process of becoming that “bad” of a hoarder. That is, the cycle was broken. In my opinion, psychosis, such as hoarding, and even that of social anxiety are not so much simply brain malfunctions, but social and environmental stimulus malfunctions that affect the brain’s ability to determine value of things. When I say “things,” I’m speaking of inanimate as well as animate objects, including ones’self. Therefore, I feel it’s quite possible that considering the nature of hoarding, one places invaiable value on objects, to compensate for his or her own perceived lack of self-worth. In a capitalist society, one cannot easily argue that that society does not raise its children to assume one’s possessions are anything but an extension of ones’ self, and by that, considering the importance of wealth in such a money-driven society, this extension would include one of worth monetarily. So if I were asked why I thought many people suffer from this disease of hoarding, I would say it is due to society’s hyper-focus on one’s worth based upon one’s possessions.
However, I have also recognised the fear in those traumatised by some loss in their lives, of losing anything else. It is documented where people that suffered through the 1930’s and The Great Depression forever afterwards tend to keep things they might not otherwise, had they not lived through a time when most people had barely anything to their names. It would then seem that it is that memory of trauma that these people are trying to avoid recurring in their futures. Being forced by fate or some other factor, to say “goodbye” to things against one’s will is a hardship everyone must face at one time or other, but some have seen more than their fair share of loss in this life.
In fact, in all honesty, I’m one of those people. But for all the money I’ve seen come and go in my life, it’s not the money that I consider even one of my greatest possessions, when I have it. I place value on my things, as well as my “people” as I call them, all being something that enriches my life, all being something of worth to me. Haha… now that I think about it, I may then, in fact, be pretty well-off with my hand-me-down closet and some friends that money can’t buy.
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