Hoarding Mania: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments

What is hoarding mania?

Hoarding mania, compulsive hoarding, or hoarding disorder, is a pathological condition whose owner suffers from a great desire to store things even if they are old or useless. Also, they have a great difficulty in getting rid of any of their stuff, or abandoning it. It is the disorder that makes its owner captive to the process of collecting and storing. They do not have the ability or the will to get rid of these objects and throw them away.

Collectors of a certain kind of things or tools should not be confused with hoarding mania. People who are interested in collecting a certain category of things such as stamps, country coins, or others are normal people. Their desire to collect and keep these specific things is a hobby, and their actions are conscious and under the influence of the mind, while people with compulsive hoarding keep anything, even if it is futile and useless. That's beside their great suffering in abandoning any object of it, no matter how urgent the reason is.

Sometimes people with hoarding disorder justify keeping items they don't need as they might be useful to them later. Sometimes they make a habit of collecting old items because they have an emotional impact on themselves and are linked to memories of them or people close to them.

The process of collecting and keeping things begins as a habit, then develops into a disorder. The disorder escalates to cause great chaos in the place in which they reside due to the accumulation of excessively collected things. This may negatively affect the quality of life in it.

Symptoms of hoarding mania:

There are several signs that a person has hoarding mania, which can be clearly noticed without the need for much investigation. Perhaps the most common symptoms of hoarding are the following:

1. Excessive retaining of things that are not needed, or things that there is not enough space to store them.
2. Facing extreme difficulties in the process of getting rid of any object, no matter how obsolete and no matter how low its actual value.
3. An intense desire to keep things and feeling irritated at the thought or necessity of getting rid of them.
4. The huge chaos in the atmosphere of the house and the rooms in it to the point that they become unusable.
5. The individual has problems in the planning and organizing processes, as well as their constant resort to procrastination, postponement, hesitation and delay.

The daily receiving of a large number of items, which results in a lot of waste, such as empty containers, packaging, etc, and the individual’s desire to accumulate these items and keep them due to the difficulty of dispensing with them gradually turns the place into a complete chaos which is the first sign of hoarding mania or storage disorder. It usually begins in adolescence and continues into adulthood and beyond.

The situation continues to worsen with age. It starts with keeping things they  don’t need or don't have enough space to store. By middle age, things get out of control and symptoms worsen until they become difficult to treat.

Storage disorders develop gradually and soon become a specific behavior. It only becomes noticeable to others after the individual with this disorder has gone too far in their hoarding mania, and has caused massive chaos where they live.

Among the consequences of excessive possession and the difficulty of getting rid of surplus things are the following:

1. Huge piles of useless and worthless items, such as papers, books, magazines, and other things that represent emotional memories for the owner.
2. Large quantities accumulated in the corridors of the house causing narrowness and crowding of space, especially in the living rooms. This makes them unusable as they were designed for. Also, things are stacked in the kitchen in a way that prevents it from being used for cooking, as well as in the bathroom and other rooms.
3. Unreasonable and unnatural accumulation of food and garbage.
4. The occurrence of problems that hinder performing work at home, and crises that threaten the safety of the person affected by the disorder and the safety of their family.
5. Having sharp disagreements with family members, friends, and other people trying to remove or get rid of some hoarded items.
6. The difficulty of organizing the place, and the loss of some important necessities because the place is in chaos. 

Motives of people suffering from hoarding mania:

Despite the many criticisms that people with compulsive hoarding hear, they continue to collect, ignoring all comments from society, and justifying their actions with these justifications on which they keep the items:

1. Objects of sentimental and emotional value that they associate with past memories, often happy ones, or people they love.
2. Items that are useless now but are in good condition and may be needed in the future.
3. Items that make them feel safe when they are certain of their presence.
4. Items they will never need but throwing them in the trash is a waste.

It is worth noting that hoarding mania may reach hoarding animals, especially pets, which multiply and their numbers become large. Also, the owner insists on keeping them although he cannot provide the necessary care for all of them because of their large numbers. 

Causes of hoarding mania:

The causes of hoarding compulsive disorder or hoarding mania are not yet known precisely. However, there are some factors that contribute to this disorder. The most important of which are:

1. Having a family member who suffers from hoarding increases the chance that family members will develop it. Their family history contains a pathological story of this kind.
2. Some brain disorders can be a cause of hoarding mania because of their impact on decision-making centers.
3. Impairment of some nervous or brain functions may be associated with the appearance of hoarding compulsive disorder's symptoms.
4. Life problems and their repercussions and effects on the mental health of individuals may be a reason for the emergence of hoarding mania in some, or the exacerbation of the condition of those affected, especially in cases in which the sufferer loses a loved one. This constitutes a shock to them that prompts them at first to keep all their things and the stuff that remind them of them. And then the situation worsens after that and turns into a habit and then into hoarding mania. 

The risks of hoarding mania:

The danger of hoarding mania lies in its exacerbation and the filling of the place in which the person lives with objects and tools that may be dangerous to their health and the health of their family, in addition to the psychological consequences of worrying about losing any of them. Among the most prominent of these risks:

1. Respiratory diseases and asthma due to the accumulation of dust and dirt on the hoarded items from a long time.
2. Diseases and bacterial infection resulting from the fact that the collected objects are a breeding ground for germs due to lack of hygiene.
3. Falls and bumps due to the overcrowding of hoarders' homes with items everywhere.
4. Mental illnesses and psychological disorders resulting from the social isolation that people with hoarding mania tend to, which they often resort to because of the criticisms of those around them of their collecting lifestyle and encouraging them to get rid of useless things.

Methods of treating hoarding mania:

Treatment for hoarding mania or compulsive disorder is divided into two parts:

1. Cognitive-behavioral therapy:

It is the treatment that is carried out by specialists in this field. It is based on the principle of teaching the patient on organizational and decision-making skills, in addition to the skill of deep communication with the patient in order to know their reasons and motives towards the hoarding process, then calming their fears and helping them to break their anxiety about the process of abandoning useless possessions and relaxing. This gives the patient skill in dealing with their objects and wisdom to start getting rid of the surplus gradually.

2. Pharmacotherapy:

To this day, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved a drug for hoarding mania. But medical professionals give patients some medications to treat symptoms of anxiety and depression associated with hoarding disorder. The drugs are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and antidepressants. Medical research is ongoing to find an actual drug treatment for hoarding mania. 

In conclusion:

Hoarding mania is that condition that makes the patient attached to all their objects, and unwilling to get rid of any of them, no matter how useless and useful. Their hoarding process develops until their home is filled with objects and needs that cause them health and psychological risks, social isolation, and dependencies that cannot be treated without supervision from psychological specialists.