Hoarding Is Hidden Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
May 22, 2001 -- Do you ever hate to throw something away, just in case you might need it?
Take a peek at a hoarder's dining room: boxes, used fast food containers, soda cans, and an old Christmas wreath litter the floor. If you went into the basement you would find hundreds of empty boxes that Chris, a hoarder, can't bear to part with.
"There is a lot of shame, and it has been like the big secret — the kids have been afraid to let other kids in the house," Chris tells Good Morning America. She and her family asked that their last name not be used.
"I keep it from most of my friends, and they don't come over to my house at all, and it's really difficult because I know they wonder, why don't we go to Katie's house," Katie, her daughter, says.
A Secret Shame
It's because of an obsessive-compulsive disorder doctors call "hoarding," a secret shame that happens behind doors firmly closed. Those who suffer from this little-known syndrome find it emotionally and physically impossible to throw anything away.
Doctors aren't sure what causes hoarding, though some 50 studies have been done on the disorder, ABCNEWS' Dr. Nancy Snyderman says. It has been linked to a variety of mental illnesses including schizophrenia, but many experts believe it is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorders affect some 2 million Americans. Hoarding seems to affect equal amounts of men and women.
One study found that 80 percent of hoarders had grown up in a house with someone who hoarded, Snyderman said. A study at UCLA used Pet scans to get a closer look at hoarders' brains, and they have found some brain differences, she said.
Experts who study hoarding say the problem goes largely unreported, and is often only revealed because the hoarder faces eviction, a competency hearing, or action by a local health department.
‘It’s Pure Agony’
Chris' family has never known a life without it.
"I really hate this, that I have such a hard time throwing things away," says Chris, "it's pure agony is what it is ... it's pure agony."
