Hoarding is different from obsessive disorders

Are hoarders simply extremely messy people who have no regard for their personal environments?

That's not the case, health professionals say. Hoarders, in the simplest sense, are addicts.

"This is a process addiction," said Moe Ross, co-director of Northwest Community Counseling Services with offices in West Dundee, Crystal Lake, and Woodstock. "It's a thinking disorder that's in the same category as sexual addiction, gambling, video games, and shopping."

Ross says any individual who has a habit that creates a problem in his or her life but continues to do it anyway is suffering from an addiction. Yet treatment for hoarders is different from typical psychological models for other disorders, such as obsessive compulsiveness.

A hoarder is typically someone who has relationship issues. They begin to have a relationship with the items they hoard, as well as the process of obtaining and hoarding the items themselves. This is one reason why hoarders often backslide if they don't have some type of ongoing support.

"Process addiction is very tough to treat because people are in denial," she said.

The typical hoarder initially doesn't come in for treatment of the hoarding issue. Generally, the individual has other issues and hoarding is only one of many symptoms.

When treating a hoarder, Ross said she makes what she calls "a wide round curve," making the individual look at what is good about themselves. As they become confident, then they examine the shadows, and that's where the work on hoarding begins.

Sometimes individuals need to be initially removed from their homes if there is a fire hazard or utilities aren't working. A sense of trust must also be gained so the hoarder doesn't feel like they have to give up all of their stuff. Often at this point, family members are engaged to help in the process.

This remains tricky territory, however, because not all counselors are addiction trained. Individuals who are cerebrally organized can fool the world and still be hoarders.

"I would like us as a culture to say that they are hoarding, rather than they are becoming a hoarder," Ross said.