The Atlantic recently published an article about hoarding disorder after a reporter visited the Annual Hoarding Meeting at the 23rd Annual OCD Conference in Chicago. The headline refers to organizational expert, Marie Kondo, and the recent popularity of her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
The popularity of Kondo’s method might have raised awareness of hoarding, said Elias Aboujaoude, the director of the OCD Clinic at Stanford University, but the approach also risks oversimplifying hoarding and its causes.
“While [Kondo’s method] may be reasonable advice for the rest of us, a hoarder is driven by the following fear: ‘What if I need it someday?’” Aboujaoude told me via email. “Therefore, while they acknowledge that a particular item is not currently giving them joy, they worry excessively about needing it in the future but no longer having access to it.”
Click here to read the full article on The Atlantic website.
I feel I need help with this disorder… can you recommended a link for eastern Massachusetts?
Hello,
You can search for providers who can treat Hoarding Disorder by doing a search of the Resource Directory on the main page of our Hoarding site: https://hoarding.iocdf.org/ You can access the Directory under where it says “Find Help”. Simply enter your zip code to get started.
Help needed for a hoarder in St. Louis (West St. Louis County) please.
Hello,
You can search for providers who can treat Hoarding Disorder by doing a search of the Resource Directory on the main page of our Hoarding site: https://hoarding.iocdf.org/
The easiest way to search is to enter your zip code and then select “Find”. On the next page you’ll be given additional search options to choose from.