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Compulsive Hoarding
Hi, All!
Wow, I've been away for a while!
Just this afternoon, I was chatting with my program director and the conversation turned to hoarding. Although my work is mainly in chronic pain at the clinic, she asked me if I knew if hypnosis was effective in treating hoarding.
I had no idea.
It seemed to me that it would be. Although there is precious little literature on the topic, what there is seems to point to commonalities between hoarding and OCD, which relates well to anxiety, which responds well to hypnosis.
Of course, I had no data, but I hadn't looked very deeply into it. It works in theory, though.
We ran into a bit of a challenge at this point. If you, as a hypnotherapist, was asked what you could provide to a group of mental health providers (counselors, psychologists, etc) and asked what you might be able to contribute to a program aimed at treating compulsive hoarders, what would it be?
Do you have any data (e.g., studies, citations) to back that up?
I'd love to see what you come up with!
Tom
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Cleesattel on -
Tom,
Compulsive hoarding, like any other behavior, is driven by the behavior center of the mind (that I call the Judgmental mind).
Finding out the reason for the hoarding, via part therapy, then correct the issue that caused the behavior thus eliminating it.
As far as backup? How about an on going practice helping those with compulsive behaviors, such as smokers, over-eaters, guilt mongers, etc.
I don't try to justify anything to counselors, or psychologists, etc. Unless they would like to provide the studies, citations, and data, to back up the approaches that they use.
John
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Permalink Reply by Roy Hunter on
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First, you can only help a hoarder if he/she CHOOSES to change. Assuming that decision, then I would use parts therapy.
Roy Hunter
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Permalink Reply by Alexx D on -
Hoarding has to do with loss,with grief. It's the fear of not having something when you really need or really want it later.
Whether it comes from loosing someone or something precious to you or from going without something or even just the sheer fear of this kind of situation, it makes throwing away something that's utterly useless to anyone else a lot harder. Feelings attached to stuff that belong in the bin makes very little sense to anyone who has never felt that way, but we can all understand the feeling of loss. The basis of this behavior is that sense of loss, either real or imagined.
If you look at it this way maybe it's not so difficult to see how hypnosis could do some good :)
Good Luck with this, Tom
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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Hanover on
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Hi Tom,
Having known several hoarders myself, what's interesting is that the objects seem to absorb the hoarder's hopes, dreams, and future.
Hoarders have intricate plans for every object they own--very elaborate and wonderful fantasies about what they'll do with the objects at some undefined point in the future. These fantasies give the hoarder a lot of pleasure. Many of them also get a lot of pleasure from finding bargains or finding uses (albeit fantasy uses) for things that others would "wastefully" throw away.
And most hoarders are desperately unhappy in the here and now, because of their hoarding. So ironically, some objects for them are little time capsules from a time when life wasn't awful. So they're perceived as being little life preservers (and who would be crazy enough to throw away a life preserver?)
There's also a lot of shame attached to throwing away any objects, even if they appear to anyone else to be useless. They've paid money for the item (or "rescued" it from the trash). They have an emotional investment in the item.
And finally, objects themselves seem to be alive to a hoarder. Sometimes the objects have feelings of their own (such as loneliness) and the hoarder feels a lot of guilt over the prospect of making an object homeless. Throwing away a bit of garbage to a hoarder might feel the same as throwing your family dog into the garbage for a non-hoarder. It's physically painful.
I'm not a hypnotherapist, so I don't know how to help all of this with hypnotherapy. But I hope that helps you understand what goes on inside the mind of a hoarder.
One non-hypnosis resource I'd recommend is FlyLady.net. FlyLady is a decluttering, home organization and self-care mentor. Most hoarders have horribly low self-esteem, and FlyLady has a system that helps to build healthy living routines while decluttering and learning how to keep a house tidy. It's a kind of cognitive behavioral therapy, really. FlyLady helps people overcome "Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome" (CHAOS) with a lot of love and good humor.
I hope this helps.
Kathleen
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Permalink Reply by Dr. Tom Virden on -
Cool! Some wonderful stuff here!
To sum up just a bit....we have conceptualizations of hoarding as a compulsion (akin to addiction) and grief (which really isn't mutually exclusive). Anthropomorphizing of objects appears to be fairly common and contributes to the strong attachment of objects.
Parts therapy (of which I am unfamiliar, save by name) and home organization (which I've heard anecdotally with some success) seems to be the treatment of choice here.
Now...I'm getting the impression that there isn't much in the way of RCT support for treating hoarding using hypnosis. There may be, however, more for grief and compulsive disorder (in fact, I'm sure there is). I can only assume that it will generalize, but one never knows for sure...
Wonderful input, folks! Thanks!
Tom
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