Posted on 02/28/2022 8:16:51 AM PST by Red Badger
Many of us may find we have acquired too many possessions that clutter our living spaces, but refuse to part with things "in case we might need them".
Although having too much stuff is something many of us can relate to, for some people, a persistent difficulty parting with possessions can become a problem: hoarding. When these tendencies significantly impair somebody's quality of life, this leads to a condition called hoarding disorder.
Curiously, understanding how hoarding manifests and how it relates to other difficulties in everyday life has not received much attention until recently. Only in 2013 was hoarding disorder officially recognized in the DSM-5 (the American Psychiatric Association's manual for assessing and diagnosing mental health conditions), and its key characteristics agreed upon.
In a recent study, we found people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a significantly higher frequency of hoarding symptoms compared to the general population. This indicates that hoarding should be routinely assessed in those with ADHD.
Hoarding disorder is characterized by persistent difficulties discarding items, regardless of their actual value. This results in excessive accumulation of possessions that clutter living areas and compromise their intended use. Hoarding disorder leads to major distress and problems in socializing, work and other areas of daily functioning.
Anecdotally we know participants in hoarding research often report problems with attention, with many believing that they should have received a diagnosis of ADHD. Indeed, evidence does indicate that people with hoarding disorder experience greater problems with attention compared to others.
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, with one of its key characteristics being problems with attention. "Inattention" encompasses issues with concentrating, but also considerable difficulties with organization, forgetfulness, procrastination and being easily distracted to a degree that impairs everyday functioning.
If there is a link between hoarding and inattention, then what about people with ADHD? Do they have more hoarding problems than most?
Our study We asked all patients in an adult ADHD clinic in the UK to complete a series of questionnaires about their traits and behaviors including hoarding. We had 88 people, one-third of the patients, take part. A control group with similar age, gender and education characteristics who did not have ADHD answered the same questions.
Using three different questionnaires, we applied thresholds previously established by hoarding researchers and clinicians to indicate hoarding disorder. Some 20 percent of participants with ADHD reported clinically significant hoarding symptoms, versus 2 percent in the comparison group (close to the 2.5 percent prevalence of hoarding disorder in the population).
Hoarding was roughly as common across both genders, with patients who exhibited hoarding symptoms aged on average in their 30s. Clinically significant hoarding in ADHD patients was associated with poorer quality of life and higher depression and anxiety.
People with ADHD who scored below the threshold for hoarding disorder still reported considerably greater issues with hoarding compared to the control group. Further, those with more severe attention problems were more likely to report problems with hoarding.
Even if not suffering from either ADHD or hoarding disorder, many people will relate to the difficulties characteristic of these conditions, demonstrating that symptoms exist along a continuum in the population.
We therefore reran the study online in 220 UK participants, finding this time that 3.6 percent scored above the threshold, and that there was again a strong link between inattention and hoarding.
The findings from our study, which we understand is the first to examine hoarding in adult ADHD patients, suggest that people with ADHD should be routinely assessed for hoarding symptoms – particularly given the limited awareness around any impairments associated with hoarding.
While patients did not spontaneously raise hoarding-related issues in the clinic, they did endorse them once explicitly raised in our study.
Research gaps A limitation of our study is that hoarding symptoms were investigated with self-reported questionnaires. Future studies should replicate the findings with trained clinical staff assessing hoarding through interviews. Future research should also investigate why this association between ADHD and hoarding disorder exists.
More generally, one challenge to understanding hoarding and providing effective treatment is that many of those who suffer from hoarding disorder have limited insight. This means they don't necessarily recognize or accept that they are suffering from a mental health condition, or that they have a problem at all.
Research on hoarding disorder has tended to focus on people who do come forward or those noticed by health and social care systems. Time and again studies describe samples of predominantly female participants in their late 50s.
But these participants tell of severe hoarding beginning much earlier in life, often by one's 20s. In addition, indirect evidence from demographic studies suggests that hoarding is evenly split across genders.
The evidence from our study indicates that our understanding of hoarding may be enriched by targeting these younger people with ADHD and hoarding to get a fuller understanding of their symptoms. This could ultimately support more effective interventions and treatments in both ADHD and hoarding disorder, and help illuminate the link between the two.
Sharon Morein, Associate Professor in Psychology and Mental Health, Anglia Ruskin University.
Worthless psychobabble.
The way Brandon (and his suckups here) are behaving with regard to Ukraine, we may all wish we had ADHD.
I’ll have to download this article, then backup my storage.
Those of us who were little kids during WWI were taught not to throw ANYTHING away. For instance, crooked nails were hammered straight and saved to be used again.
Insecure individuals who have had everything taken from them in the past tend to hang on to things.
Just started watching a video of a hoarding woman who mentioned having ADHD and that it was part of her hoarder problem. Never heard it mentioned before.
Not psycho babble.
I'm going to copy this full post, print it out, and file it - so I can refer back to it in the years ahead. I'm sure it's valuable to save.
In other news:
Researchers from the University of Barcelona studied health data from more than 73,000 mother-child pairs across Europe. They found that unborn children exposed to acetaminophen were 19% more likely to be on the autism spectrum and 21% more likely to show signs of ADHD.
“The most consistent pattern of results was observed for the association between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and ADHD symptoms,” the researchers wrote. They said the link was there in both boys and girls but was slightly stronger in boys.
My family was broke in the early 1050’s. When we cleaned out my mother’s house after she passed away, we saw that she saved everything. I’ve been broke several times in my life. Now that our finances are stable, we’re watching our government steal it away with taxes and inflation. We’ll be proud hoarders.
1950’s. I’m not quite a thousand years old.
Total and complete psychobabble.
Actually, interesting to me. My daughter was just diagnosed with ADHD.
I have for awhile thought she had a hoarding problem.
I find it interesting there’s a link.
Savers knows where every thing is and it will make a great garage sale someday.
I have known several hoarders, including some relatives.
They all seemed to be obsessive-compulsive or addicted to acquisitions. Outside of that, they seemed highly focused and attentive to their activities.
The ADHD "connection" looks false to me.
Just looking for a slot for everyone. The autism spectrum is so broad that there is no such thing as normal anymore. Idiots
Not really. Hoarding has traditionally been linked to OCD but is now being reconsidered as more closely associated with ADHD. Which I don’t completely get but there is a neurobiological link. Which apparently you understand better than the researchers.
There doesn’t necessarily have to be a link. People who have ADHD might also be horders, just like people who have a million other idiosyncrasies. I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Savers knows where every thing is and it will make a great garage sale someday.
I'm a saver! Interesting though. I am a bit OCD, wonder if that is a connection. Definitely have a hard time getting rid of stuff...
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