No, I don’t think you do. They are aware their poop is poop; they know it isn’t gold. They are aware that their home is a home; it isn’t an alien spaceship. They don’t believe external forces are instructing them or forcing them to do as they do. For the most part they recognize their actions as socially unacceptable and abnormal. ie, they comprehend reality.
Not every mental disorder is a psychosis. Hoarders do have a mental disorder, and my understanding is that for the most part it is a compulsive disorder and has an anxiety component.
You do understand that if a person compulsively touches the doorknob exactly 17 times before opening it, it isn’t considered psychosis, right? Despite the fact that they have irrational motivations, they are still in touch with reality.
In your world perhaps, but if you diagnose someone with psychosis based solely on hoarding behavior, and bill medicare for that service, you will be at risk for prosecution for medicare fraud. And your peers will disdain and deprecate you for an incorrect diagnosis.
just for reference’s sake, i’m at the ***other ***end of this scale.
up until my mom’s death 16 years ago, i was a less than tidy person. used to drive my far better organized sister to utter distraction.
background: i was mom’s only caregiver for about 20 years. she suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis.
fast forward past her demise: today in my home (purchased after her death and the sale of the house we lived in together) there’s no dust, no dirty carpets, no stray cat hair, no dirty laundry in the hamper more than a day or so.
used dishes are put in the dishwasher immediately, clean laundry is folded and put away immediately. casa scubaqueen is visitor-ready at any time.
i’ll go out on a limb and venture to guess that altho there are no psych initials after my name, i’m pretty sure this is my attempt to tame sudden chaos/lifestyle change into order.
Ever since I started reading threads about hoarding and watching the shows, I pick out what I think are “hoarder houses” when I drive through neighborhoods. There’s one right down the street that I’m convinced is full, mostly because you can see the stuff coming out on the front porch and also the back yard.
I’ve known a couple of people IRL who were hoarder/squalorers and I find it unbelievably depressing. I just don’t understand how people can let their kids live like that. It’s one thing to put yourself in deplorable conditions, but allowing it to get that bad with children around is unconscionable.
i’m there with you. my house isn’t immaculate, but it’s tidy and visitor ready, and these threads tend to make me tackle the dusting and mirrors and stuff i sometimes skip when cleaning. i also regularly go through my closet and drawers and toss/donate stuff i don’t use. i’m almost the anti-hoarder.
i think it’s because i’ve moved a lot, like an average of once a year since i left high school, so maybe i’m subconsciously preparing to have to pack up and go on a moment’s notice. i agree it’s a form of taking control, i feel so much better after i’ve gone on a cleaning spree.
i sympathize because there was a period when i was living with my mom and brother and we were living in probably about level 1 squalor. we had a small house, my brother didn’t have a bedroom and slept on the couch. he’s a slob, so the living room was always a mess, and i cleaned as much as i could, but it would get messy again in no time, and we all just kind of gave up. it was awful. that house was always dark too. i can definitely see how it happens, the mess just gets the best of you and you give up trying. never, ever again. i’m another who likes the house light and airy with lots of blinds open, and windows open when it’s cool enough, and lots of sunlight.
Many of them also seem to think that they can effectively “flip” their hoard. “So I’m impossibly deep in debt from buying junk. I’ll sell the (contaminated, broken, worthless-when-it-was-new) junk, and make enough money to pay my debts and get a new house!” The most recent episode was a perfect example of how that works. First, the appraiser judged it worth several hundred at best, not the thousands the hoarder was envisioning. Then the hoarder took most of it back from the auction house, and what did sell got, I think, less than $100. And I can’t imagine the money she did get went towards anything except more junk.
