What personality disorder do hoarders have?

Author: Prof. Fabian Brekke  |  Last update: Friday, November 14, 2025

obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

What does hoarding say about a person?

Hoarding can be related to difficult experiences and painful feelings. You may find these hard to express, face or resolve. Some people say hoarding helps them cope with other mental health problems, or distracts them from feeling very anxious, upset or afraid.

What are the personality characteristics of a hoarder?

In addition to the core features of difficulty discarding and clutter, many people with hoarding disorder also have associated problems such as indecisiveness, perfectionism, procrastination, disorganization and distractibility.

What is the best medication for hoarding?

The medicines most commonly used are a type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Research continues on the most effective ways to use medicines in the treatment of hoarding disorder.

What makes people become hoarders?

Personality: Many people with hoarding disorder show indecisiveness or perfectionism. Heredity: If you have a family member with hoarding disorder, you are more likely to develop it yourself. Stressful life events: Triggers such as the death of a loved one, an eviction, or divorce may trigger hoarding behavior.

Hoarding Disorder Explained

What mental illness do most hoarders have?

Mental health problems associated with hoarding include:
  • severe depression.
  • psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia.
  • obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

What personality types are hoarders?

Mental health conditions most often associated with hoarding disorder include:
  • Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD).
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
  • Depression.

What childhood trauma causes hoarding?

The experience of two types of childhood trauma (emotional abuse and physical neglect) predicted higher levels of hoarding symptoms. Attachment anxiety and avoidance were positively correlated with hoarding symptoms and with emotional attachment to possessions.

What should you not say to a hoarder?

People who hoard are often aware that others do not view their possessions and homes as they do. They often react strongly to words that reference their possessions negatively, like “trash,” “garbage,” and “junk.” Let your non-verbal expression say what you're thinking.

At what age does hoarding peak?

Hoarding behaviors can begin as early as the teenage years, although the average age of a person seeking treatment for hoarding is about 50 years of age. Without effective treatment, individuals who hoard often endure a lifelong struggle with hoarding.

What personality disorders go with hoarding?

The most frequent finding has been that hoarding is associated with obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), and in some cases even when the hoarding criterion is excluded (5, 16, 18, 19, 23).

Why do hoarders get so angry?

The positive relationship between hoarding and experiences of anger is consistent with other research suggesting that individuals with hoarding difficulties experience heightened levels of negative emotions (including anger, anxiety, and sadness) when experiencing hoarding symptoms, such as difficulty discarding (Shaw ...

Who is most likely to be a hoarder?

Hoarding is more common in older adults than in younger adults. Risk factors include: Personality. Many people who have hoarding disorder have a behavior style that includes trouble making decisions and problems with attention, organization and problem-solving.

What mental illness causes poor hygiene?

What Is Diogenes Syndrome? Diogenes syndrome is a behavioral-health condition characterized by poor personal hygiene, hoarding, and unkempt living conditions. It is most common in older men and women, which is why it is also called senile squalor syndrome.

What does the Bible say about hoarding?

Ecclesiastes 5:13 tells us wealth hoarded does so to the harm of the owner; Isaiah 23:18 tells us that those who don't hoard their wealth, their profits will go toward abundant food and fine clothes; and James 5:3 tells us if you hoarded wealth in the last days your gold or silver will be corroded and eat your flesh ...

Are hoarders embarrassed?

Hoarders generally experience embarrassment about their possessions and feel uncomfortable when others see them. Their clutter often takes over functional living space, and they feel sad or ashamed after acquiring additional items. Also, they often incur great debt, sometimes extreme.

What does a level 1 hoarder look like?

It is often unrecognized by outside observers and the hoarder. Indicators include difficulty parting with redundant items, excessive shopping for items already in the home or not needed, accessible stairs, doors, and windows, no noticeable odors in the home, little to no visible…

Is a hoarder mentally ill?

Since 2013, hoarding has been classified as its own mental disorder. Hoarding is a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorder (DSM) classified disorder. In 2013 when the latest DSM was released, DSM-V, for the first-time hoarding was classified.

What's the difference between hoarding and clutter?

You might go through busy periods of life where cleaning isn't a high priority and clutter builds up, but this isn't hoarding. Some of the differences between clutter and hoarding include excessive disorganized piles of objects and extreme difficulty getting rid of items.

How to stop enabling a hoarder?

Offering general support
  1. Use respectful language. Don't refer to their possessions as 'junk' or 'rubbish'. ...
  2. Don't focus on a total clean-up. ...
  3. Listen to what they want. ...
  4. Think carefully about gifts. ...
  5. Don't pressure them to let you into their space. ...
  6. Let them know you are there. ...
  7. Include your loved one in calls to authorities.

What is one of the major effects of hoarding?

Hoarding resources can prevent or slow products or commodities from traveling through the economy. Subsequently, this may cause the product or commodity to become scarce, causing the value of the resource to rise.

Why do hoarders keep feces?

Some hoarders feel an attachment to their excrement and begin hoarding it along with possessions and trash. This is the most extreme kind of hoarding, even in stage 5, and needs a professional decontamination crew to aid in cleanup.

Are hoarders usually bipolar?

Bipolar disorder isn't considered a direct cause of hoarding disorder. The causes of hoarding disorder are complex but may include: Genetic factors. Brain structure and function.

What is clutter personality?

Clutter personalities deal with the psychological reasoning that anchors us to our clutter. They are the excuses and wrong-thinking that enslaves us to our stuff, making it difficult to part with things that no longer have value in our lives.

Are narcissists usually hoarders?

Key points. Narcissists feel empty on the inside and try to fill that emptiness with stuff. Psychologists say that narcissists like nice things for appearance's sake, but the need is deeper than that. People who have a robust sense of self should be less likely to be materialistic or hoarding.

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