How to Tell if Someone is a Hoarder?

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Hoarding occurs when a person’s unwillingness to let go of objects causes their belongings to pile up and fill the home. Hoarding can impede someone’s quality of life and cause stress, anxiety, depression, and even potential health risks. It can be hard to know if someone is hoarding because hoarders often try to hide their condition and may even stop allowing loved ones into their home to avoid exposing their living conditions. If you suspect someone you love is hoarding they may not be willing to open up and admit it, so here are some signs you should look out for.

Warning Signs of Hoarding

1. Unwillingness to Let Anyone in the House (Closed Door Policy)

A hoarder will often avoid letting anyone into their home in order to hide their poor living condition. If someone gives persistent excuses for why no one can come visit their home then there may be potential cause for concern.

Note: Someone trying to help a hoarder should never force themselves into the home of a hoarder. However, if you suspect that an individual is hiding something, expressing the dangers of living in unsafe conditions may be the key to unlocking the opportunity to help a hoarder find their way on the road to recovery.

2. Becoming Socially Withdrawn (Isolation)

In addition to using their condition to avoid social interaction at their home, hoarders sometimes use hoarding as a coping mechanism to avoid socially interacting with people even outside the home, over time hoarders sometimes become increasingly comfortable staying at home with their belongings instead of seeking social interaction at all, to avoid socially situations.

Hoarders will usually distance themselves from others as often as possible, everyday tasks like going to work, grocery shopping, and attending special events will seem more obligatory than enjoyable. An illusion of basic interaction can be maintained by taking part in daily activities, however, when the routine is over, a hoarder will simply retreat back to their home.

3. Difficulty Managing Daily Activities (Unlivable Living Space)

Making decisions is difficult for hoarders because every choice comes with the loss of what they didn’t choose to keep. In order to avoid making decisions, hoarders will often excessively procrastinate, or become consumed with one task that distracts them from all regular daily activities.

A person’s living condition is not all that is affected by chronic indecisive behavior. Careers can be ruined, savings can be squandered, and simple functionality like shopping and driving can be affected so much that a person’s quality of life is diminished. Calling on a hoarding cleaning service provider is the first step to putting someone on the road to recovery from hoarding.

4. Compulsive Shopping

Frequently buying large quantities of items can be a sign of hoarding. Most of the time hoarding starts to effect the life of the hoarder over time through excessive accumulation of item(s). The accumulation of items starts to effect the life of the hoarder when the compulsion to not throw away items is accompanied by the compulsion to keep buying items.

5. Excessive Attachment to Belongings (Indecisive Behavior)

A hoarder’s attachment to objects goes beyond what’s usual. They can become emotionally invested in objects that have no perceived value.  If you notice your loved one discussing or treating everyday objects with affection they may be hoarding.

Hoarding develops when the ability to logically decipher which items to hold on to and which items to let go of fails. Every person has a unique reason as to why emotional connections are made with material objects but hoarders make emotional connections with objects to the point where they let the items accumulate to a point where the items negatively effect their life.

6. Asking for Help (Take the Opportunity to Help)

Being let into the world of a hoarder can be shocking and overwhelming but being invited into their home should translate to you being called upon for help. Take this opportunity to strengthen the bond of trust between you and the hoarder that is vital to the success of hoarding recovery. With the meteoric rise in hoarding cases across the US and in the mainstream media, it would be very easy to confuse someone’s call for help with a desperate attempt at attracting attention so keep an open mind and attempt to help an individual who reaches out to you for help.

If a hoarder is asking for help or for someone to confide in, the opportunity must be seized immediately in order to effectively start the hoarding recovery process. Hoarding conditions can range from small amounts of clutter to massive hoards of garbage, animals, and biohazards. Use the opportunity wisely and gain the trust of your friend or loved one who is asking for help.

Hoarders will allow everyday living areas to completely lose their functionality. Food is no longer prepared, cooked, or even stored in the kitchen. Bedrooms are no longer slept in, living rooms are no longer lived in, and bathrooms no longer function the way they are meant too.

If you see a combination of all the above signs, there is a chance your loved one is hoarding. It’s important to get them to accept both psychological and physical cleanup help.  You can find a licensed therapist in your area at iocdf.org and Address Our Mess can handle all physical cleanup needs. The company will sort and organize belongings, handle donated items and trash haul, and deep clean the home to return it to livable conditions.

Mon, 02/27/2017 - 20:55 by Kenneth Donnelly