Real-life hoarding problems.

[Alcamonic]

Greetings.

I am making a thread because I am in need of your advice, if nothing else I hope for some others point of view on the matter at hand.

One of my brothers have a hoarding problem, due to this he never dare have anyone come to visit and I can tell that he does not like his situation, even if he just shrugs it off when me or the other family members try to talk to him about it.

We have "fixed" his apartment a couple of times while he have been traveling or when he told us in panic that some service men where going to do a routine maintenance on his radiators.

But this all seemed for nothing as his "attempts" of cleaning were slim and his place looked like a dump a couple of months later.

Personally I do not care about what my brothers living situation is like, but my parents badly do and it's causing my mother to be slightly depressed and embarrassed about the whole thing.

So Escapist, have do you have any advice on the matter?

Perhaps some advice on the psyche of the people that do this, so I can easier understand this behaviour. Please share similar stories and if you could solve them in some way.

 

[Professor James]

What does he hoard and how serious is the problem?

 

[Alcamonic]

Mainly consist of "cheap stuff" that is on sale, most of it is history books. This gathering of (in my opinion) crap causes normal cleaning with vaccum cleaner impossible.
He have developed a chronic cough due to the dust buildup.

 

[VonKlaw]

Cleaning up after him yourself won't help - he will see it as a green light to hoard, knowing that if the appartment needs sorting (as you've said, you've done it before when servicemen were coming).

The only real way to sort it is to deal with why he hoards, which will probably need counselling - people hoard for all sorts of varied reasons, which can make it hard to "fix".

 

[lettucethesallad]

I've heard that cognitive behavioral therapy can be effective, since it's used in a lot of other OCD disorders. Just throwing stuff away and not dealing with the problem may hurt more than it helps. Be there for him, but don't be an easy way out when he needs to get things done.

 

[Bertylicious]

According to my limited understanding of things, hoarding often derives from neurosis relating to loss and abandonment. I am no expert but I imagine that he'll need to address the underlying issues in order to be treated.