Collecting and Compulsive Hoarding … The Thin Red Line!

Collecting is a lot of fun, and many collectors are designated as hoarders, packrats, or even obsessive by non-professionals who simply fail to understand that there are people in the world who differ from themselves! If your action figure collection has ever caused you to be called obsessive compulsive by a friend or relative, today we are actually looking at the difference for you. Are you obsessed? More importantly … do you want to lose your obsession?

Compulsive hoarding, AKA…

Compulsive hoarding is also known as pathological hoarding (alluding to the fact that it is a disease, though the term pathological doesn't truly apply here), disposophobia, or the messy mindset. I love the last two terms!

The clinical definition

Of course, every clinician differs in the limits of what they recognize as compulsive hoarding, whether of items from your action figures guide, stamps, or empty toilet paper rolls. Here are some general guidelines, though:

• An obsessive need to acquire a significant amount of possessions
• The failure to use those possessions
• The failure to discard the unused possessions
• The felt need to keep the items, even if they are worthless, unsanitary or even hazardous.

Compulsive hoarding may also be a symptom of another disorder, such as a wider obsessive compulsive disorder.

Are YOU a compulsive hoarder?

Just one of the characteristics of your collection above would certainly not a clinical hoarder make. If a stamp collector went to his doctor's office and said "Doc, I'm worried about myself. I haven't looked at my stamps in over 6 months, even though I keep adding new pieces to my collection. Doesn't failure to use my collected items mean that I'm a compulsive hoarder?", he would be laughed out of the building. And of course, if you collect pieces out of your action figures guide, but don't use them because you are keeping them in mint condition for future resale, this would hardly be a reason to seek professional help.

While some health care professionals would say that ALL of the above conditions need to be apparent in order to make a diagnosis of compulsive hoarding, others would say that several factors plus the physician's opinion is enough. For example, a person that obsessively collects old alligator clips, makes sculptures out of them and has long conversations with them would definitely need clinical help … though they don't exactly meet the definition of failure to use the items!

The basic question is -- does your collection significantly impact on your ability to lead a normal life? If not, there is absolutely no problem.