Over the past few years, the horrors of hoarding have become a major focus of American television. Shows like Hoarding: Buried Alive and A&E’s Hoarders are just some of the programs focused on the growing type of obsessive compulsive disorder.

            The ways you can tell if someone is a hoarder is if they fail to be able to throw out a large number of items that seem to have little to no value, severe cluttering in a person’s home so that it is no longer able to function as a healthy living space, and a significant distress of a work or social life. About 15% of people that suffer from OCD also have a hoarding problem. There are many different types of objects people can hoard. On some of the TV shows, people have been shown hoarding food, toys, mail and even animals. One man had been hoarding and breeding rats for over 15 years. These types of situations cannot go unnoticed because of the health concerns it can have to that person, their family, and under certain types of hoarding, the animals being kept in the house.

            People who hoard often don’t know they have a problem and think that the way they are living is perfectly fine. This makes treatment of the disorder very challenging, but it can work. A Rowley local  told me that she thinks her sister may have a hoarding problem. “Her house is usually pretty clean, but she has clothes in her closet that she used to wear when she was in high school; she doesn’t wear them now so I don’t know why she just doesn’t throw them away.” Many people have similar problems like this, but sometimes it is just that they can’t find the time to clean out their closet; diagnosed hoarding is usually a very serious issue because it can affect a whole family’s health.