Hoarding Disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that develops from vulnerabilities, information processing problems, and beliefs about and attachments to possessions.
Many ADHD symptoms, including weak organization, focus, and decluttering skills, overlap with hoarding disorder symptoms. The difference is that someone with hoarding disorder has a reason for saving items and may fail to see their hoarding behaviors as problematic; hoarding is not a function of being unmotivated or unable to organize.
Family history, poor health or disability, indecisiveness, perfectionism, procrastination, emotional dysregulation, and poor attention and focus (where you can’t see the forest for the trees) may lead an individual to have hoarding disorder, according to Carolyn I. Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Translational Therapeutics Lab in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.
“Individuals with hoarding disorder have beliefs about and attachments to their items,” she says. “It’s quite painful for them to let go of items. The clinician needs to have a shared agreement with the patient, in which they understand why it’s important to discard objects and what is gained from doing so — not just what is lost.”
In this download, you will learn:
- How hoarding disorder resembles — and differs — from ADHD
- The primary symptoms of hoarding disorder
- The negative impact of hoarding disorder on individuals
- And much more!