Tea cups, empty jars, cans, stuffed animals, plastic containers, CDs… In Edward Brown’s house one can get almost anything.
Stacked one on top of the other without an apparent logic, the objects that Edward Brown has accumulated throughout his life have made his home a difficult place to live in.
“There is no space for people to move if they come here ”, this man from tells the BBC years from Blackburn, an industrial city in the north of England.
He admits that he has a problem, but it is difficult for him to deal with it.
“(The tendency) to collect things sometimes gets out of hand”, he says, “but the stress of living with that mess puts me in ‘leave me alone mode’”.
Brown suffers from what is known as compulsive hoarding syndrome, a mental disorder that makes it very difficult for those who suffer from it to get rid of ob objects that for other people have no value or are of little importance.
“This difficulty in discarding things usually leads to considerable clutter, which makes the living space impossible to navigate” and where “rooms cannot be used for the purpose for which they were designed: you cannot use the kitchen to cook or the room to sleep”, he explains to the BBC World Gregory Chasson, clinical psychologist and associate professor in the department of psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
From newspapers, magazines, food containers, shoes and cables, to umbrellas or bottle caps . Things in good condition or destroyed by use and time, become precious objects for the accumulator.
This is a condition that does not distinguish between men and women, culture or socio-economic situation. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
Affects at least 2.6% of the world population, with higher percentages in people older than 51 years and in those with other psychiatric diagnoses such as anxiety or depression, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
And, the severity of their symptoms, according to a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, “has gotten markedly worse” during the Covid pandemic-19.
“As if she were my sister”
Another important characteristic is the strong impulse that people who suffer from this disorder of acquiring and storing objects.
“It is not only the chaos that we can see but also that ur agency to buy things or collect things for free, or to save objects that came passively into your life,” Christiana Bratiotis, associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia, in Canada, tells BBC Mundo.
“They want to preserve them because of the beliefs they have regarding these objects and because of the strong emotional connection they have with them.”
Bratiotis says that some of his patients can say things like, “This collection of objects means as much to me as it does to my sister. And getting rid of her would be like cutting all ties with her”.
(Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
“It represents part of his identity”, he explains.
To this is added the belief that, one day, they may need these objects, either for the use for which they are intended, for an alternative one or as part of a creative project.
The dangers of accumulating
The dangers for the health of not addressing this problem are multiple and more serious than they appear, starting with the physical ones.
“Compulsive hoarding can give rise to all kinds of dangerous environments: fire risks, of falls, injuries and a tremendous risk of infestation that increases the possibility possibility of developing diseases such as asthma”, notes Chasson.
In terms of mental health, it leaves those who suffer from it socially isolated: they keep the secret of a condition “stigmatized by society, which interprets it as a problem of laziness, immorality or lack of personal standards and does not understand it as a mental health problem“, argues Bratiotis.
Continuum
Although many of us can identify with the tendency to keep objects either because they are beautiful, just in case, because they bring us nice memories or because we think we can find some kind of use for it -from the evolutionary point of view we are essentially hunter-gatherers and we tend to bring and keep objects in our lives- that does not necessarily make us compulsive hoarders.
(Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
It is important to understand that it is a behavior and, as such, “occurs on a continuum , which ranges from mild to severe”, explains Bratiotis.
When are we facing a case of compulsive hoarding or simply facing a person with a “collector’s soul”?
“Sometimes it is a difficult line to draw”, says Chasson, “but it becomes a problem and something diagnosable when it causes impediments or anguish in the individual or in those around him”.
Also when daily activity within the home is made impossible by clutter and accumulation.
You probably have in your head the image of a house filled to the ceiling with things useless, where a pin does not fit, with a mountain of accumulated objects that barely leaves room for its owner – a middle-aged or older person or- walk through the door.
It is not ill-advised, but these are the most extreme cases, and the ones that reach -for obvious reasons- the news and television programs.
To get a more accurate picture you can refer to the photo below, which is one of the resources used to assess when the tendency to hoard has become a mental health problem.
(Photo: FROST RO, STEKETEE G, TOLIN DF , RENAUD S.)
It is part of a series of images that show 9 photos of a living room, 9 of a kitchen and 9 of a bedroom, ordered from 1 to 9 according to the amount of accumulated objects (1 is without clutter, 9 is the most severe degree ).
Come from a study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavior ral Assessment in 2008, and indicate that, above 3, we are in the presence of a compulsive hoarder.
Causes
The accumulation of objects, however, is only the manifestation of the problem, the obvious face.
“Beneath the disorder, both metaphorical as there are literally parts of this problem that are less visible, but which are nonetheless very important drivers for the development of this behavior”, explains Bratiotis.
There are certain personality traits -difficulty taking decisions, perfectionism and procrastination – which, when combined, can predispose an individual to develop compulsive hoarding syndrome.
Unlike a collector who keeps and organizes a very specific type of object, a compulsive hoarder keeps everything kind of things that it stores in a chaotic way. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
“We know that these people make decisions more slowly and question their decision almost immediately after making it,” he says.
There is no single cause for this disorder. “It’s not just evolutionary biology, it’s not just genetics, or neurobiology, but all those things play a role,” says the researcher.
“We know that the brain of a compulsive hoarder works differently”, explains Bratiotis and notes that these differences were observed in computed tomography scans, performed on people who were asked to perform tasks that involved arranging and discarding possessions.
“We understand that the combination of these causes with some life experiences and in particular experiences around loss is what drives this problem”, he adds, which despite becoming obvious in middle age, begins to develop in childhood or adolescence.
“Research suggests that in more than 48% of cases the problem arises between the 10 Y 10 years old”, says Bratiotis.
“ It can manifest itself with things like keeping objects that others consider garbage, but above all the thought process and the beliefs that surround them“Chasson tells BBC Mundo.
What happens is that it becomes obvious later, adds the psychologist, because children have people who order for them and one does not really have the possibility of collecting and storing things until later in the life.
Treatment
To date, there is no cure. But the most promising treatment is cognitive-behavioral therapy specialized in compulsive hoarding disorder.
The objective of CBT in the broad sense is to change the way people think in order to modify their behavior and improve how they feel.
“The results have been moderate. They are not irrelevant, but not completely successful”, comments Bratiotis.
Some hoarders feel the urge to buy things. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
It also seeks to make “interventions to reduce the severity and impact of its consequences, and improve the quality of life (of the person who suffers the disorder) and maintain achievements”, explains Chasson.
“And there are other modalities such as self-help groups with facilitators or different group approaches”, he adds.
Likewise, there is much that family or loved ones can do to help.
First, you must approach the problem “with empathy and warmth, instead of assuming an accusatory position, saying I instead of You”, comments Bratiotiss, giving the following example:
“You can say ‘I am worried about you living in this house, because I know you are going through something difficult and you cannot use this corridor because it is blocked and I don’t want you to fall’. It’s very different from saying ‘You need to clear this hallway because you’re going to fall’”.
It is also important to recognize that no matter how well intentioned they may be, friends and family are not always the best people to offer help, he adds.
Still, they can offer the hoarder support in seeking and obtaining outside intervention.
Meanwhile Edward Brown, the Blackburn hoarder, is struggling to improve his situation and has helped start a support group in his town, to help others in similar conditions.
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He says that he is “excited to support compulsive hoarders and see how they improve their lives”.
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