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The Hoarding Project intends to utilize a network of people in order to serve as a support group to the individual who hoards, as well as assist in recovery. This network may be comprised of friends and family, professionals, the media, and researchers. The Hoarding Project (THB) does not merely clean out the space of the individual who hoards; instead, The Hoarding Project aims to use therapy, both individual and collaborative, to discover why the individual is hoarding. The Hoarding Project also conducts research on how ambiguous loss and other factors may play a role in hoarding behavior. Not only does The Hoarding Project conduct research and offer therapeutic services to those who hoard, they provide services for family and friends of those who hoard, including support groups. In their quest to provide a realistic understanding of hoarding to the community, The Hoarding Project also uses the results of their research to educate others through public speaking events, newsletters, and articles.

Background: About compulsive hoarding
Hoarding is not a small problem; it is estimated that up to 4 to 5 percent of the United States population has problems with compulsive hoarding behaviors (CHB). To understand the need for an organization such as The Hoarding Project, it is important to appreciate the historical study of and therapeutic interventions treating these individuals.

Definition

 * The acquisition of, and failure to discard, a large number of possessions
 * Clutter that precludes activities for which living spaces were designed
 * Significant distress and impairment of functioning caused by the hoarding

Historical references and recent academic research
CHB is a phenomenon that has surfaced to the public’s awareness more recently but has been something that individuals have struggled with for years without a clinical label. The media’s representation of compulsive hoarding is believed by many in the mental health community to be biased. Because of this representation, individuals who hoard are often judged by others because of their inability to stop their compulsive hoarding behaviors.

The research on compulsive hoarding has revealed interesting findings about the impact that compulsive hoarding has on individuals who hoard. A study done by Reid, Arnold, Rosen, Mason, Larson, Murphy, and Storch examined 269 nonclinical adults aged 56-93 years old. Through the use of a number of inventories and surveys, the researchers found that compared with a younger community sample aged 24-72 years old, the nonclinical elderly adults examined displayed significantly more severe hoarding behaviors. They also found a strong relationship between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptoms and hoarding behavior/cognitions.

A second study done by Frost, Tolin, Steketee, and Oh looked at the characteristic of indecisiveness in samples of adults who self-identified as having significant hoarding problems, adult children of self-identified hoarders, and spouses of self-identified hoarders. This study found that self- identified hoarders reported more decision making problems than the adult children and spouses. The adult children of the self-identified hoarders reported more indecisiveness than the spouses possibly indicating that this is something that runs in families genetically. Among the self-identified hoarding group, decision-making problems correlated with all of the three core features of hoarding (excessive acquisition, difficulty discarding, and clutter/disorganization). Finally, the study found that higher indecisiveness scores were associated with an earlier age of reported onset of hoarding.

A phenomenological study done by Kellett, Greenhalgh, Beail, and Ridgway examined the experiences of people who compulsively hoard and how they make sense of their own behaviors. In this study, eleven compulsive hoarders were interviewed. The researchers identified the following four key themes that emerged throughout all of the interviews: childhood factors, participant’s’ relationship to their hoarded items, cognitive and behavioral avoidance of discard, the impact of hoarding on self, others, and their home environment. Overall, the themes that emerged in the interviews described individuals “entrapped in massively cluttered physical environments of their own making." Any efforts to discard their things were consistently ruined by cognitive and behavioral avoidance, which inevitably would maintain the stress that they felt and the hoarding environment they were in.

Based on the current research, it is clear that compulsive hoarding negatively effects the individuals who hoard and makes it very challenging for them to live. Although compulsive hoarding has become more of a well-known disorder recently, it has made its appearances in our culture’s history through a number of different sources. Hoarding characteristics appeared in early literature including poems, books, and was talked about by early psychologists. In 1862, Charles Dickens included a character that hoarded named Krook in his book Bleak House. Famous psychologists William James, Erich Fromm, and Freud all discussed in their writings about the hoarding characteristics their clients displayed. It was in 1980 that compulsive hoarding became one of the nine diagnostic criteria for Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder in the DSM III. In 1993 Frost and Gross published the first systematic study and clear definition of hoarding. Their study was the first to describe hoarding in a large sample of people and it provided the earliest research picture of what hoarding behavior looked like. A possible reason for the lack in historical studies on compulsive hoarding may be that the previous belief that hoarding was an uncommon problem.

Historically, a number of different treatments for compulsive hoarding have been researched. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors were one method that was researched for the treatment of compulsive hoarding. Overall this method proved to be unsuccessful. A treatment method called exposure and response prevention was also researched. This treatment focused on discarding as much as possible in a short time period without inspecting the items being discarded in an attempt to rid the individual who hoards of a large amount of their things. This treatment approach also proved to be unsuccessful. More recently, tailored treatment for compulsive hoarding has been researched with better results. The tailored treatment approach includes office visits with in-home sessions focusing on acquisition, the challenge with discarding and disorganization mixed with cognitive behavioral therapy.

Team
Marriage and family therapist Jennifer Sampson, a doctoral student in the Family Social Science Department at the University of Minnesota, joined with Janet Yeats to create THP. Janet is also a marriage and family therapist and a U of M doctoral student in the area of grief and loss. It began in 2009 as the Minnesota Hoarding Project (MHP). Jennifer and Janet are also creating a system for professionals and organizations to apply to affiliate with THP.

Primary areas of focus

 * Clinical Work consists of research-based therapy and counseling, by specially-trained professionals, for people who hoard and their families and friends.
 * Research that is academic in nature and is executed from systemic, ecological, and ambiguous loss theoretical perspectives.
 * Education that includes trainings for professionals as well as information distribution via community outreach.

Mission
The group's mission is to utilize a systemic, multidisciplinary approach in order to alter the view society has about compulsive hoarding behavior. THP also hopes to increase awareness, educate the general population, help the person who hoards feel supported, help families and loved ones of the person who hoards (how to support their loved one and cope with their own feelings), execute academic research about CHB, and focus on community outreach via media and legislation. One of the main goals in this process is to diminish the stigma and shame associated with the individual who hoards. Research has proven that people who have strong social support have the best possible future outcomes.

Value Ssatement
It is important for anyone interested in THP to understand the values represented by this group.

What THP Believes About Hoarding

 * Hoarding is a compulsive behavior that stems from a variety of external and internal factors, including biology, psychology, and the environment.
 * Hoarding is a problem that affects individuals, families, friends, communities, and cultures; treatment approaches must also reflect a systemic perspective.
 * Hoarding behavior has been found to be related to genetics, brain functioning, and mental illness. It may also function as a coping mechanism for unresolved trauma or loss that has occurred in a person’s past or present, and it may become reinforced by emotions and behaviors over time.
 * “Hoarding” describes a behavior, not a person.

What THB Believes About Families

 * Families can be defined in an infinite number of ways, including biological, legal, and psychological relationships.
 * Families can experience conflict in their relationships due to hoarding behaviors and, if the conflict is unaddressed, it can significantly hinder the healing process.
 * Families deserve focused attention in the healing process in order to reconnect and maintain relationships with their loved ones who hoard.
 * Families have the capacity to move past anxiety, distrust, and hostility and relate to each other from their highest selves.
 * Families which are supportive and compassionate toward their loved one who hoards can be the most important component to healing and must be part of the therapeutic process.

What THB Believes About Healing

 * Healing and treatment approaches in most communities are not effective enough for many people who hoard.
 * Healing for compulsive hoarding must aim to reduce hoarding behavior, restore relationships and process unresolved emotional wounds.
 * Healing is a slow, and oftentimes difficult, process for all involved.
 * Healing requires collaboration between a team of specially-trained professionals and families in order to be more effective.

What THB Believes About Healing

 * THB works to support healthy relationships and alleviate suffering related to compulsive hoarding for individuals, couples, and families.
 * THB works to inform the culture at large about compulsive hoarding collaboratively through education, research, and therapy.
 * THB works to reflect a commitment to serving communities in ways that are environmentally-conscious and encourage social awareness and activism.

Community outreach
A part of THP's mission is information insemination through community outreach. If people are interested in getting the word out about how to help people who hoard and those who are effected, these are some ideas: proclamation for hoarding awareness.
 * Social media networking: email blasts, Facebook, Twitter
 * Contact with media resources: news programs, newspapers, etc.
 * Legislation: contact state representatives to discuss current DSM criteria, an awareness day,

Further resources and reading
Anxiety Treatment Center

The Center for Emotional Health

Anxiety Disorders Center

Panic/Anxiety/Recovery Center

Dr. Suzanne Chabaud

Stuff: Compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee

Buried in treasures: Help for compulsive acquiring, saving, and hoarding by David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost, and Gail Steketee

Overcoming compulsive hoarding: Why you save and how you can stop by Jerome Bubrick, Fugen Neziroglu, PhD ABBP, Jose Yaryura-Tobias, MD and Patricia B. Perkins, JD

Digging out: helping your loved one manage clutter, hoarding, and compulsive acquiring by Michael A. Tompkins and Tamara L. Hartl

Dirty secret: A daughter comes clean about her mother's compulsive hoarding by Jessie Sholl