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> Here's the key: it's an inability to make decisions. That’s a very helpful insight; and to take it further I would just note that pathologic doubt, or intole

> Here's the key: it's an inability to make decisions. That’s a very helpful insight; and to take it further I would just note that pathologic doubt, or intolerance of uncertainty is a cardinal feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder. No idea whether it relates to the family members in your story or even to most hoarders, but in some OCD patients, like me, it takes the form of an extreme inability to decide because of a need to completely dispel doubt by seeking more information. But of course there’s no amount of information that will ultimately triumph over doubt for those so afflicted. I wonder why all OCD/uncertainty-intolerant people don’t become hoarders. Maybe there’s a countervailing aesthetic, ordering drive.

atoav 3y ago
Keeping objects is not free. It takes mental and physical space and needs work to be kept in shape. So even if you have a hard time to decide, that cost will push you to a decision at some point, because it starts to affect you as a person physically and emotionally (e.g. being annoyed by that box of empty bottles). Hoarders tend to priorize those objects above themselves and phantasize some time where those objects might become crucial to have. We all to that to some degree, who doesn't have weird chargers for long lost devices in their drawer somewhere? But what differenciates hoarders from people like you and me is that they won't stop keeping things when that drawer is full, when their living room is full, when every last nook and cranny of their flat is used. I have been to sizeable flats that looked like narrow caves, with the walls obscured by piles of things and stacks of old yellowed newspapers splitting rooms in small paths. Of course keeping such a place clean is more or less impossible, especially if it is being lived in and the safety hazards (fire, collapse of floor, ...) are real.

atoav 3y ago

Keeping objects is not free. It takes mental and physical space and needs work to be kept in shape. So even if you have a hard time to decide, that cost will push you to a decision at some point, because it starts to affect you as a person physically and emotionally (e.g. being annoyed by that box of empty bottles). Hoarders tend to priorize those objects above themselves and phantasize some time where those objects might become crucial to have. We all to that to some degree, who doesn't have weird chargers for long lost devices in their drawer somewhere? But what differenciates hoarders from people like you and me is that they won't stop keeping things when that drawer is full, when their living room is full, when every last nook and cranny of their flat is used. I have been to sizeable flats that looked like narrow caves, with the walls obscured by piles of things and stacks of old yellowed newspapers splitting rooms in small paths. Of course keeping such a place clean is more or less impossible, especially if it is being lived in and the safety hazards (fire, collapse of floor, ...) are real.