Thank you for visiting Hoarding Support.
Having lived with my Mum's chronic hoarding problems through much of my life, felt ashamed and isolated. When mum bravely agreed to appear in the BBC1 documentaries My Hoarder Mum and Me and Britain's Biggest Hoarders, thousands of people reached out to me, and all of sudden we were no longer alone.

 

 

Understanding that there were potentially millions of other people living with this secret was both empowering and overwhelming. felt could finally share my experiences, but wanted more than that. wanted to help others and so hoarding.support was born. 

The purpose of the site is to provide information, support and advice for people who hoard and their loved ones. To create awareness about this secretive condition. don't claim to have cure, but hope that with the resources available here, and the wonderfully supportive community that has built over the years, hoarding will become better understood by both sufferers and the people around them, as well as medical professionals, and the general public.

Please browse the siteread the message board, and if you would like to contribute your own experiences, please register in confidence and join our on-line community of hope and understanding.

Founder of Hoarding Support and Patron of the charity Hoardinguk.org

 

HOARDING DISORDER: WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT IT IS NOT.

By Dr David Mataix-Cols, Ph.D.

Like most human behaviours, saving and collecting possessions can range from being totally normal to excessive or pathological. Most children have collections at some point and approximately 30% of British adults define themselves as collectors. Hoarding and Compulsive Hoarding are some of the more commonly used terms to refer to an excessive and problematic form of 'collectionism'.

Hoarding is highly prevalent (approximately 2-5% of the population – that is potentially between 1.3 – 3.3 million people in the UK alone) and when severe, is associated with substantial functional disability and represents a great burden for the sufferers, their families and society.

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the book which contains all officially recognised mental disorders, was published in 2013 and included a new diagnosis named "Hoarding Disorder." This diagnosis would apply to hoarding that occurs in the absence of, or independently from, other organic or mental disorders.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced recognition of Hoarding Disorder in 2018 in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Definition as follows: “Hoarding Disorder is characterised by accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of, or difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their actual value". It adds: "Accumulation of possessions results in living spaces becoming cluttered to the point that their use or safety is compromised. The symptoms result in significant distress or significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.“

It is worth noting that whilst some people who hoard have good insight into the problems caused by their behaviour, others are completely convinced that their situation is not problematic, despite evidence to the contrary. These sufferers are often reluctant to seek help for their problems, causing great distress to those close to them.


Dr David Mataix-Cols, PH.D, now lectures at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.