How is Hoarding Disorder Diagnosed and Treated?
How to get the help you - or someone you love - needs for compulsive hoarding.
The first step towards addressing hoarding behaviour is to acknowledge that is a problem for you and that you need help to overcome it. The fact that you are asking this question and reading this blog post means you want to improve your situation and that is a big first step that should be applauded!
What’s the next step?
Tendencies towards hoarding and coping with hoarding disorder can be a challenging and isolating condition to manage on your own. Consider reaching out to friends and family members for support at the beginning and during this journey. It’s time to get the help you need.
STEP 1:
Seek professional help.
Hoarding disorder is is an official mental health condition that requires a licensed mental health professional diagnoses and intervention to manage effectively. This could be a psychologist, psychiatrist, clinical social worker or professional counsellor.
They will meet with you to discuss your specific situation to access whether or not you meet the criteria for hoarding disorder.
The diagnostic criteria for hoarding disorder includes:
Ongoing difficulty with getting rid of possessions, even when they are not valuable.
A belief that items need to be saved, leading to significant distress over the thought of getting rid of these items.
Extreme difficulty getting rid of possessions which leads to clutter and congestion and makes living areas unusable.
The hoarding results in significant distress and leads to difficulty functioning in daily life, such as in social situations, at work or personal safety.
The hoarding is not a consequence of another medical problem, such as a brain injury, and it is not a direct result of a mental health condition, such as low energy with depression.
Part of your interview with your mental health professional will include looking at the severity of your hoarding behaviours based on The Five Stages of Hoarding.
STEP 2:
Create a plan.
It’s important to note that the severity of a person’s hoarding disorder (within The Five Stages of Hoarding) is evaluated by physical standards. However, what the stages do not capture is the degree of anxiety or trauma that those with severe hoarding behaviour may have in order to manage their distress, fear or depression.
When you work with your mental health professional, one of the things you will do is to create a plan for addressing your hoarding behavior.
This will include:
Identifying the specific causes of your hoarding behaviour
Identifying your triggers for your hoarding behaviour
Developing coping strategies to start the decluttering and organization process
Creating goals
Identifying action items
STEP 3:
Get extra help as needed.
While working with a mental health therapist addresses the behavioural aspects of the hoarding, it does not remedy the physical state of your living space. Depending on what is required based on your level of hoarding, this may require bringing in other professionals that specialize in supporting those with a hoarding disorder such as professional cleaners, organization experts and hoarding experts.
STEP 4:
Practice decluttering.
Again, depending on the state of your living space, try to start small by decluttering one area of your home at a time. Even if it’s one box, or one bag, or one drawer.
Prepare yourself by having empty boxes and a trash can ready. Calm yourself, make yourself comfortable and take deep breaths. Start sorting your possessions into categories such as keep, donate, or discard, and work on letting go of those items that are no longer useful or necessary. Once you have completed this process, try to remove the items you want to donate or discard immediately so they are out of your sight.
If you find success with this approach, celebrate your accomplishment and repeat! You are doing amazing!
However, if you find this difficult and are still unable to let go of items, it’s important to take stock of what you are feeling and discuss this with your mental health professional or other experts to see what is preventing you from moving forward and if another approach will work better for you.
STEP 5:
Develop new habits.
To prevent hoarding behavior from recurring, it will be important to develop new habits for managing your possessions. This may include setting limits on the number of possessions you keep, implementing regular cleaning and decluttering routines, and developing strategies for organizing your living spaces.
It may also mean ongoing mental health support from either a counsellor or a support group.
Remember, recovery from hoarding disorder is a process that takes time and effort. By acknowledging the problem, you are already taking a big step towards seeking the professional help you need to implement new habits, so you can manage your hoarding behavior and improve your quality of life.
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