Here is the post from a NASW blog – Is Hoarding a Big Deal?

After reading this post, I thought about a client I worked with a couple years ago. This women lived in an independent residential apartment building for seniors 55+. She was one of the first clients I had in my social work career. Here were my thoughts on hoarding.

{I have always been very intrigued by all that affects the older adult population. Hoarding, seems to be yet another ailment that plagues this population’s homes and lives. I agree with many of the other comments classifying hoarding as a mental health issue. I had a client in the past, that I felt, defined herself through her belongings. By losing a belonging it was as though she was losing part of her own self, her own identity. I also felt that she was able to cope through the other losses in her life; death, physical disability, etc. by hoarding more and more items. She was particularly interested in garage sale findings. How I made sense of this particular client, of course, will not fit other older adults. But, I felt this helped me understand what she was experiencing, enabling me to clinically identify the underpinnings of her compulsive hoarding.}

My question is, now what? If it is a mental health issue, how do we handle it differently? This was of categorizing the issue, of course, is apposed to a “quirk” or a style of living. Is there a drug to solve hoarding? Is there a treatment approach, similar to anxiety disorders? Can we use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

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