[♪ INTRO ] Most of us struggle with clutter. Your friend calls to say they’re coming
over, and suddenly you’re scrambling to put things away and make your place at least
a little bit presentable. But when people take this to the extreme,
it can be a little mystifying. Like, you definitely do not need all your
junk mail going back to 1997. It’s easy to make hoarding a punchline -- it’s
managed to sustain at least 9 seasons of reality TV. But the thing is, hoarding is a real problem,
and it’s not as rare as you might think. It’s thought that about 2-6% of people have
what’s called hoarding disorder. And while we still have a lot to learn about
it, neuroscientists think something quite distinct is happening in the brains of those
who have it. People with hoarding disorder accumulate stuff,
even things others would say are worthless, because it’s hard for them to part with
their possessions. It often pains them to throw things out -- there’s
an intense feeling of loss if they do. And they may not want to get rid of stuff
in case they might need it later. Many also seek out new objects, whether they’re
freebies or purchases. This is different from collecting because
even if you’re collecting something hardly anyone else wants, like hotel key cards, collectors
usually focus on one thing, and they keep everything organized. That’s not what happens with hoarders. Stuff builds up, and when it starts to take
over, sometimes people can’t use their kitchens anymore to make food. Or, they find that half of their bed is coated
in stuff, making it hard for them to sleep. In short, clutter is no longer just clutter
— it’s interfering with their lives. In severe cases, hoarding can become dangerous,
because people can’t move through their homes easily, and the space can become unsanitary
and a fire hazard. Those extreme cases are what they usually
show on TV. But it’s a lot easier to see what’s happening
in someone’s home than it is to see inside their head. Back in the 1990s, psychologists thought hoarding
was a subtype of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, a disorder where people can become
fixated on things, or do certain behaviors repetitively. This idea made sense: hoarding was one symptom
used to diagnose OCD, and anywhere from 20-40% of people with OCD do some hoarding. Plus, it’s easy to see how hoarding could
be related to an obsessive fear of being wasteful or getting rid of important items. But 80% of hoarders, beyond their accumulation
of stuff, have no other symptoms of OCD. And there are some telltale differences between
how people with OCD usually feel about their compulsions and the feelings that come with
hoarding. People with OCD tend to be bothered by their
compulsions, whereas hoarders usually aren’t — beyond embarrassment if someone comes
into their house. And unlike with OCD compulsions, hoarders
aren’t generally thinking about hoarding all the time. Neuroscientists have also noticed that the
activity patterns in the brains of people who hoard look different from those in people
with OCD. In one 2012 study of 107 volunteers, which
included hoarders, people with OCD, and controls, researchers imaged people’s brains while
they decided whether they should keep or shred newspapers and pieces of mail. As you’d expect, hoarders struggled with
the task, and were more anxious and indecisive. And when the items came from their own homes,
they had much higher activity in two parts of their brains than people in the other groups. These regions, the anterior cingulate cortex
and the insula, are important for decision-making and emotion. Researchers think this abnormal brain activity
makes it hard for hoarders to respond appropriately to objects — basically because they overvalue
them, so it’s hard for them to throw things out. Since those responses aren’t seen in people
with OCD, it doesn’t seem like the disorders are really all that similar, even though there
can be some overlap. In 2013, the authors of the fifth and latest
edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, agreed,
and officially recognized hoarding disorder as its own thing — although it’s still
in the same category as OCD. Now, even though we have some idea as to what’s
going on in the brains of hoarders, we don’t really understand why the disorder starts
in certain people and not in others. We do know that there are some risk factors. First, hoarding disorder often runs in families,
and some twin studies suggest that at least part of it is genetic. And about 75% of hoarders also have some other
mental health problem, like depression, anxiety, or ADHD. Many people with the disorder have also experienced
traumatic events or had traumatic childhoods. For example, an abusive relationship or the
death of someone the person is close to can make hoarding worse or sometimes even trigger
it. It’s not clear why this is, but some psychologists
think that after traumatic events, people may feel safer attaching themselves to objects
rather than people, who might hurt or abandon them. It’s like the clutter gives them comfort. We also know that middle-aged or older adults
are more likely to be affected, possibly because the disorder gets worse over time. So, even though hoarding symptoms usually
start early, like in the person’s teens, it might take a few decades or more for things
to really get out of hand. There’s no full-on cure for hoarding disorder,
but cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, can help treat it. Therapists help the patient question why they
want to acquire more things, or why they can’t get rid of something. They come up with a set of questions to make
it easier to tell whether an object is worth buying or keeping, like, ‘Do I really need
this right now?’ or, ‘What’s the worst thing that can happen if I get rid of this
box of old toys?’ By learning to recognize the hoarding behaviors,
and by talking through their feelings with someone as they practice sorting and throwing
things out, people can begin to change. Successfully treating hoarding is not easy. It involves reshaping a fundamental part of
how you perceive the world and live your life. But understanding more about where your thoughts
and behaviors come from can go a long way toward giving you agency over them — even
if change seems impossible or scary at first. That’s what psychology is all about. It’s also why we do what we do here at SciShow
Psych. The human brain is amazing and weird, and
if you’re watching this right now, odds are you have a human brain. So if you’re interested in learning more
about the weird quirks that make us who we are, you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych
to subscribe. [♪ OUTRO ]
