Hoarding is the Only Disorder Besides Dementia that Relentlessly and Continuously Worsens with Age
A boy starts collecting sticks when he is 5 years old. His room is always a mess, per his mother, and she can’t get him to toss out things he doesn’t use as he’s getting older. He turns his attention to broken electronics easily picked out on trash day as a teenager, and by the time he’s in his 30s, he has an entire home and garage filled with “stuff.”
Next, he rents storage units as he acquires more. It goes on and on as he ages, creating chaos in his life, an open dislike by his neighbors, isolation and a constant worry of being discovered and possibly fined by authorities, along with suffering from his very real fear of losing his possessions, sometimes resulting in bouts of deep depression.
This Hoarding Story Could Be About Someone You Know
By an adult’s later years, there’s been enough time to have accumulated a quantity of “goods” that overwhelms the adult and diminishes any quality of life in the “golden years” that remain.
Be sure to watch the interview with Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging for more details on how to help a hoarder.
Have you known a neighbor, friend or loved one who might have this disorder?
Have you ever been able to help someone with this issue?
Please leave your comments below!
How can you get a person to start getting rid of their things??? When you’re offering help!
GREAT question! what CAN we do to help someone?
I know a couple that they both passed away in their home and was not found for days because no one could get thru their house. This is a very big problem for some people as you age you need less things around so you don<t fall over them. This is a good subject to address. Good work.
This is a very important subject to address because it affects a person’s quality of life so dramatically. It also deeply affects the ones who care for the person who is hoarding. Being free of an over-abundance of “stuff” is a wondrous blessing and anyone who has an uncluttered environment needs to look around, realize how blessed they are, and rejoice in the fact that they are not a prisoner to an obsession that not only enslaves the mind, but also, ultimately, a person’s physical movement as well.