COM 102-037/Mrs. Grisolano
Research Paper
April 29, 2013 Hoarding: Buried Alive
Until a few years ago, a lady who was known to collect cats would have been called “the crazy cat lady.” Houses that were filled with endless amounts of stuff were referred to as “cluttered, filthy, or a pen sty.” As of today, those expressions have been replaced with the coined terms: “hoarder or compulsive hoarding.” What is hoarding? “Compulsive hoarding is a specific type of behavior marked by acquiring and failing to throw out a large number of items that would appear to have little or no value to others, severe cluttering of the person's home so that it is no longer able to function as a …show more content…

Family experiences and psychological factors may also play a role in the development of hoarding and emotional stress may heighten symptoms (Department of Psychiatry). According to Carol Wade and Carol Tavris, authors of Invitation to Psychology (2012), “A PET-scan study that compared obsessive hoarders with other people with obsessive symptoms found that hoarders had less activity in parts of the brain involved in decision making, problem solving, spatial orientation, and memory” (379). Therefore, this explanation can tell us why hoarders keep things and why they often keep their papers and rubbish in the living room, kitchen, or bedroom. Although some people may question whether a hoarder is too lazy to clean the mess, in actuality, compulsive hoarding is not due to laziness or weakness of a character. Rather, the mental illness may be due to brain abnormalities that will not improve without treatment. Overall, a lot of factors play a part in is causing this illness; therefore, it is difficult to pinpoint the main factor that causes hoarding. A hoarders inability to decide what to throw away causes them to worry and their difficulty in remembering where things are makes them feel the need to have them in sight (Wade and Tavris 379).
After reviewing everything that I have put into my research studies, I have concluded that compulsive hoarding has effects on the mind, and can terminate a person’s lifestyle. Overall, the mental