Sunday Q&A: Local task force focuses on 'hoarding' disorder

Tracy E. Davis By Tracy E. Davis Ann Arbor News
on September 07, 2008 at 12:05 AM, updated September 07, 2008 at 10:40 AM
Dr. Jim Abelson
The act of compulsive saving, or "hoarding" as it is called, might seem harmless, but there are enough evictions in Washtenaw County annually because of dangerously overfilled homes to warrant the formation of a local task force.

In addition to being a danger to the person living in the cluttered home, the practice can be psychologically damaging to children of hoarders, who are often embarrassed to have friends come to their home and who carry a sense of shame, often for life, experts say.

The University of Michigan Depression Center, along with the Washtenaw County Hoarding Task Force and the Children of Hoarders organization, is hosting a screening of "My Mother's Garden," a documentary about the filmmaker's mother and her daily life as a hoarder. The screening, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. at the Michigan Theater, will be followed by a panel discussion. Visit the Web site at for more information.

The News spoke with Dr. Jim Abelson, U-M professor of psychiatry and director of the anxiety disorder program, about the issue.

Q: What is hoarding?
Simply defined, hoarding is acquiring and failing to discard large quantities of objects that are of questionable value. Compulsive hoarders are people who seem compelled ... to acquire sometimes extremely large volumes of objectively useless things.

Q: What might those things be?
There an extremely wide range, from old bills, newspapers, magazines, to things found on street and things collected from neighborhood garbage cans, things from stores, garage sales. Some people save things because they think they might someday have utility, some because of sentimental value, some things are held onto because of perceived sentimental value.

Q: Why do people hoard?
There is a range of reasons. Extreme emotional attachment to objects, others might be incapable of making decisions about what's useful and what's not, for others, it is a profound fear of making mistakes.

Q: Is it a manifestation of a mental illness?
It has traditionally been thought of as a type of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). People who hoard are obsessed with it; they are compelled to collect and save even when it has become very destructive to their lives. But with the data we have, we're not sure if it belongs to the classification of OCD. It seems to come in other contexts as well; there are people who seem to be hoarders who don't show other manifestations ... of problems.

Q: Is hoarding animals a different thing?
I haven't thought about it because those people don't seem to come to our attention as needing help. It's people who are about to be evicted from homes because (the home is) dangerous. Or they are reaching an age and worried about the legacy they are going to leave to children. Usually those are people who have dangerously full homes.

Q: Are there any characteristics hoarders tend to have in common?
I don't know the answer to that for sure on basis of data. But people tend to come to our attention more commonly when they're older. The most common scenario is an elderly person. ... Family members become in involved and are trying to help them. It generates a fair amount of family conflict and that's really the scenario. I believe many of those people have been hoarders their whole lives. It usually isn't something that would be called hoarding early in life because they haven't accumulated sufficient stuff, or don't control their own space. But I suspect many people who are severe hoarders had manifestations of it most of their life.

Q: How common is it?
We don't see a lot of this in clinic because it stays pretty hidden. We think it's a far more common problem than we have any idea of.


Q: When was it recognized as a problem that some people have?
It's been known in the profession to be a problem for decades. But it has attracted more attention recently. There has been some discussion in the psychiatric profession on categorization (of hoarding) and that had led to more publicity. And the children of hoarders Web site was created not that long ago.

Q: Why did the department decide to the have the documentary screening on hoarding?
... We took a look and thought it was a great movie. And we have long thought this is an important, hidden problem. It's an ideal way to help people learn about something that is probably not at all uncommon, but kept very much in the closet.