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By Root 526 0

away? What if one of these flyers is valuable because it is now history? Is all this memorabilia worth any money? Could anyone I care about use that flyer? Will my family finally love me because I saved them these valuable historical documents ? Wait, there may be some cockroaches in those papers, maybe they are too gross to move. I don’t want to make a mess because then I will have to clean up. Who would I call to take care of the roaches? Can I afford to hire pest control? Oh no, I don’t want anyone to see my house. Wow, what time is it? I really need to get working on these papers. But now I’m tired, I’ll lie down and rest. I’ll worry about the papers tomorrow. What do I have to do tomorrow? Do I have anything important I have forgotten? Where is my phone? Oh no, I can’t find my phone. Did I lose my cell phone or did someone steal it? I bet someone stole my cell phone. Oh no, I can’t afford a new phone. What am I going to do . . . ? Oh, here it is under some papers. Gosh, there sure is a lot of paper here. What am I going to do about all this paper? I wonder if there is something important in these papers. . . .

Anxiety can completely paralyze a hoarder. Thalia was simply unable to help herself. Even though she wasn’t physically active, her mental gymnastics exhausted her. When anxiety becomes this crippling, it needs to be treated with medication and/or therapy before cleaning can even begin.

Anxiety disorder is a general term that covers a range conditions including panic disorder, several phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. (OCD hoarders have traditionally been grouped under anxiety disorder, but they have been discussed separately since they do portray distinctive behavioral characteristics.)

The latest studies on hoarding suggest that it may be its own subset of anxiety disorder and not part of OCD. Researchers are debating whether there should be a new category of psychology called “compulsive disorders,” which would include hoarding, OCD, and perhaps drug and alcohol abuse.

While the medical profession is still figuring out how all of these disorders are connected, in my experience, most hoarders have anxiety issues. Dr. Chabaud points out that a hoarder’s intense apprehensiveness is driven by fear—fear of real or imagined danger. All hoarders are attached to their objects, and so all of them will get anxious when someone starts taking those items away. A hoarder who has spent twenty years collecting something begins to identify with those items. Taking them away is like taking the person away. Anxiety is a natural reaction to such a severe threat.

Dr. Chabaud also says that hoarders who have a compulsive need to shop, for example, do so because it reduces their anxiety. The urge to buy is so intense that if someone tells the hoarder to stop, he or she starts to feel angry, irritable, scared, and anxious. People often ask me how a hoarder can have the energy to shop, but not have the energy to clean. For a hoarder, shopping has nothing to do with energy; it is completely about relieving anxiety and feeling good.

Hoarders are quick to go into anxiety mode when faced with making a decision about throwing items away. The anxiety is so overwhelming, and painful, that the hoarder avoids it by postponing decisions. Hoarders truly believe that they will get to the task tomorrow, but that day never comes.

▶ Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder (ADD/ADHD)

Lucy, the craft hoarder who baked all the cakes, wanted to finally clean out her house after she retired. As long as someone was there working alongside Lucy, she was on it. She was hyper-focused on cleaning, and she could get through a room more quickly than most hoarders I’ve worked with. But on the days that nobody was helping her, and she had boxes to sort through on her own, she got too distracted to do the job. Unfortunately, she would go shopping instead.

Lucy would go shopping and load up on craft items, not stopping to think about the reality of what she really had time to do. “I can crochet a hundred fifty