4 ms·

The unstated premise is that there is a rise in hoarding and that hoarding is a disorder. As this very article states at the beginning it was only within the la

The unstated premise is that there is a rise in hoarding and that hoarding is a disorder. As this very article states at the beginning it was only within the last 5 years that it has been recognized as a psychological disorder. It's just as likely to be removed again depending on the profits, or not, of those seeking to exploit the idea of hoarding being a disorder.

btmorex 8y ago
No idea if it's on the rise or not because it could just be reporting, but hoarding is a mental disorder no doubt. Watch an episode or two of Hoarders. People are literally breaking down for having to throw away a dirty piece of trash.
- usrusr 8y ago
  I can't think of a single healthy behavior that is not occasionally taken to an unhealthy extreme by people with a disorder. The term hoarding is problematic because it is lacking a clear line even more than other potentially pathological behaviors, there is absolutely no consensus where having some stuff that you don't exactly use daily ends and pathological hoarding begins. Even alcohol consumption seems clear-cut by comparison. Combined with the smugness of how self-congratulatory "minimalists" will look down on everybody who has slightly different standards than them, and the unfortunate coincidence that disorder (as in chaotic) shares a linguistic token with disorder (as in mental health) it makes it incredibly hard to have a meaningful discussion about the topic. (I write "minimalist" in quotes because far too many self-identifying minimalists are not minimal at all, they are just eagerly disposing to drive their consumerism to eleven, new and shiny every time)
  - Retric 8y ago
    The disorder line is always fairly clear cut for all mental issues. The question is if it interferes with daily life not of if it’s odd.
    - justtopost 8y ago
      Problem is, if I want to be a different sex, that will very much interfere with my daily life. The definition does not hold for what we currently accept.
      - Retric 8y ago
        Interference means more than just change in this context. Being significantly afraid of flying may be irrational and unpleasant, but the line is at the point where you’re incapable of dealing with that fear.
- superkuh 8y ago
  I don't get my psychiatric news from entertainment television. Of course they make these shows as exciting and disturbing as possible to sell ads. Trying to take away anything real from them is a big mistake.
weinzierl 8y ago
I also doubt that it's on the rise. I always thought it to be a Baby Boomers thing because they are the last generation that suffered from material shortage in their childhood. Similarly I believe information hoarding is a Gen X thing because we grew up in information shortage. Do Millennials download stuff? Maybe out of fun or for convenience but probably not because of the irrational Gen Xer fear that all the nice access to information we have could go away one day. All of this is just my arm chair psychology of course.
- yzb 8y ago
  Funny you'd say that. I keep a folder with gigabytes of youtube videos I downloaded in the event that they are removed from youtube. And, to tell you the truth, a chunk of them have actually been removed from youtube over the years!
  - weinzierl 8y ago
    For science: Baby Boomer, Gen X or Millennial? youtube-dl must be a common friend of ours. But seriously: Stuff disappears, not doubt, although if I remember something I can usually still find it online. I virtually never search something in the stuff I downloaded for years, because it is just easier to dig it up online - and that is not because my archive wouldn't be accessible. If it is important for me to remember it is probably important for others to keep it online.
    - yzb 8y ago
      Millenial, and yes, I used youtube-dl. My "Favourites" playlist on youtube is full of videos that have been deleted or that were posted by accounts that were deleted or banned. But they are still safely stored on my hard disk ;) With time I've learnt that not even archive.org is reliable for some things so I save whatever I can. Sometimes I even take screenshots of things that I may need someday. I've never stopped to think of that as "hoarding", but probably it is. Thank God those files don't take physical space at home, though!
      - 8y ago
Broken_Hippo 8y ago
I have not doubt that it is a disorder. It isn't like it suddenly happened in the last 5 years, it simply was reclassified as its own disorder instead of a subset of OCD and less commonly anxiety or depression. This does explain an increase of incidences - but so does the show itself prompting a few folks to get help for themselves or family members. That said, I have no doubt it is a true mental disorder. Even if it gets reclassified yet again as a subset of another disorder, it is still a disorder. It was a disorder 10 years ago too. This is true even if a few people exploit the diagnosis. This last one is kinda like someone faking cancer: Just because a few fake cancer doesn't mean that cancer is imaginary.
Jill_the_Pill 8y ago
We might also consider that getting rid of stuff takes more physical and mental energy (and time) than some people have available to them. My late aunt's house may have looked like that of a hoarder, but really, she just couldn't manage to go through stuff and carry it out.
jointpdf 8y ago
I don't think you read the whole article--both premises were clearly stated and extensively supported. Hoarding has long been considered a disorder, it was just rolled into OCD. However, enough of the patterns are differentiated from OCD that it can rightly be classified as a distinct disorder: "at least 80 percent of people who engaged in extreme hoarding didn’t meet the criteria for OCD. They were more prone to depression than those with OCD. They had more difficulty making decisions. They were far less likely to be aware of their behavior as a problem. Genetic linkage studies showed a different pattern of heritability than OCD, and brain scans showed a different pattern of activation. Drugs that were successful in treating OCD were not effective for hoarding." As for the on-the-rise component, there are multiple explanations offered, but this part struck me: "In other words, something has changed—in history and culture—to cause hoarding to emerge as a prevalent psychiatric disorder. Objects have taken on, for those who hoard them, individual personalities with outsized emotional significance. They cannot be casually discarded; they are woven into the person’s very sense of self..."

btmorex 8y ago

No idea if it's on the rise or not because it could just be reporting, but hoarding is a mental disorder no doubt. Watch an episode or two of Hoarders. People are literally breaking down for having to throw away a dirty piece of trash.

usrusr 8y ago
I can't think of a single healthy behavior that is not occasionally taken to an unhealthy extreme by people with a disorder. The term hoarding is problematic because it is lacking a clear line even more than other potentially pathological behaviors, there is absolutely no consensus where having some stuff that you don't exactly use daily ends and pathological hoarding begins. Even alcohol consumption seems clear-cut by comparison. Combined with the smugness of how self-congratulatory "minimalists" will look down on everybody who has slightly different standards than them, and the unfortunate coincidence that disorder (as in chaotic) shares a linguistic token with disorder (as in mental health) it makes it incredibly hard to have a meaningful discussion about the topic. (I write "minimalist" in quotes because far too many self-identifying minimalists are not minimal at all, they are just eagerly disposing to drive their consumerism to eleven, new and shiny every time)
- Retric 8y ago
  The disorder line is always fairly clear cut for all mental issues. The question is if it interferes with daily life not of if it’s odd.
  - justtopost 8y ago
    Problem is, if I want to be a different sex, that will very much interfere with my daily life. The definition does not hold for what we currently accept.
    - Retric 8y ago
      Interference means more than just change in this context. Being significantly afraid of flying may be irrational and unpleasant, but the line is at the point where you’re incapable of dealing with that fear.
superkuh 8y ago
I don't get my psychiatric news from entertainment television. Of course they make these shows as exciting and disturbing as possible to sell ads. Trying to take away anything real from them is a big mistake.

weinzierl 8y ago

I also doubt that it's on the rise. I always thought it to be a Baby Boomers thing because they are the last generation that suffered from material shortage in their childhood. Similarly I believe information hoarding is a Gen X thing because we grew up in information shortage. Do Millennials download stuff? Maybe out of fun or for convenience but probably not because of the irrational Gen Xer fear that all the nice access to information we have could go away one day. All of this is just my arm chair psychology of course.

yzb 8y ago
Funny you'd say that. I keep a folder with gigabytes of youtube videos I downloaded in the event that they are removed from youtube. And, to tell you the truth, a chunk of them have actually been removed from youtube over the years!
- weinzierl 8y ago
  For science: Baby Boomer, Gen X or Millennial? youtube-dl must be a common friend of ours. But seriously: Stuff disappears, not doubt, although if I remember something I can usually still find it online. I virtually never search something in the stuff I downloaded for years, because it is just easier to dig it up online - and that is not because my archive wouldn't be accessible. If it is important for me to remember it is probably important for others to keep it online.
  - yzb 8y ago
    Millenial, and yes, I used youtube-dl. My "Favourites" playlist on youtube is full of videos that have been deleted or that were posted by accounts that were deleted or banned. But they are still safely stored on my hard disk ;) With time I've learnt that not even archive.org is reliable for some things so I save whatever I can. Sometimes I even take screenshots of things that I may need someday. I've never stopped to think of that as "hoarding", but probably it is. Thank God those files don't take physical space at home, though!
    - 8y ago

Broken_Hippo 8y ago

I have not doubt that it is a disorder. It isn't like it suddenly happened in the last 5 years, it simply was reclassified as its own disorder instead of a subset of OCD and less commonly anxiety or depression. This does explain an increase of incidences - but so does the show itself prompting a few folks to get help for themselves or family members. That said, I have no doubt it is a true mental disorder. Even if it gets reclassified yet again as a subset of another disorder, it is still a disorder. It was a disorder 10 years ago too. This is true even if a few people exploit the diagnosis. This last one is kinda like someone faking cancer: Just because a few fake cancer doesn't mean that cancer is imaginary.

Jill_the_Pill 8y ago

We might also consider that getting rid of stuff takes more physical and mental energy (and time) than some people have available to them. My late aunt's house may have looked like that of a hoarder, but really, she just couldn't manage to go through stuff and carry it out.

jointpdf 8y ago

I don't think you read the whole article--both premises were clearly stated and extensively supported. Hoarding has long been considered a disorder, it was just rolled into OCD. However, enough of the patterns are differentiated from OCD that it can rightly be classified as a distinct disorder: "at least 80 percent of people who engaged in extreme hoarding didn’t meet the criteria for OCD. They were more prone to depression than those with OCD. They had more difficulty making decisions. They were far less likely to be aware of their behavior as a problem. Genetic linkage studies showed a different pattern of heritability than OCD, and brain scans showed a different pattern of activation. Drugs that were successful in treating OCD were not effective for hoarding." As for the on-the-rise component, there are multiple explanations offered, but this part struck me: "In other words, something has changed—in history and culture—to cause hoarding to emerge as a prevalent psychiatric disorder. Objects have taken on, for those who hoard them, individual personalities with outsized emotional significance. They cannot be casually discarded; they are woven into the person’s very sense of self..."