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Some people turn their homes into packrat middens. Such hoarding was thought to be a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD. But in the most recent diagnostic manual of psychological disorders, hoarding is proposed to be a unique condition—it’s now thought to be more about avoiding making decisions about possessions than a general obsession with them.
In a recent study, scientists compared the brain activity of hoarders with that of those with OCD, while the subjects were deciding whether to keep or toss their own junk mail and the junk mail of others.
Ownership did not affect the brain activity or choices of those with OCD. But the hoarders were different. Their decision-making brain circuit was quiet when contemplating others’ mail, but became overactive for decisions about their own mail. Not surprisingly, hoarders kept significantly more of their own mail than the OCD group did. The study is in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Hoarders’ self-ratings of indecisiveness correlated with the amount of activity in brain circuits related to exaggerated perception of the risk of a wrong decision. The researchers suggest that hoarding behavior has its own specific symptoms and should be treated differently than OCD.
—Christie Nicholson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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11 Comments
Add Commentand SciAm has even added a new twist to hoarding, cluttering and messing up a place, a floating toolbar loaded with unnecessary garbage, to irritate, distract and unnerve the reader.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhat a piece of crap software! this is a scientific journal and it's overburdening itself with kiddie's crap, starting with the most overrated, brainless idiocy the internet has ever come up, the facebook data-hoarding rip-off.
Anyone know another source for scientific news? Anyone thinking of starting one? let me know, I'll move pronto.
As the son of two hoarders and the brother of a hoarder, I can affirm the finding that hoarding is mainly about avoiding making decisions. Thank you for this 60-second podcast. Very enlightening.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPassage is about the difference of OCD and hoarder’s. scientists compare the brain activity and realize that hoarder’s become more quiet about others thinking however they are overactive about themselves.to sum up, the hoarder’s have their owns behavior and symptoms and should be treated differently than OCD’s.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my opinion, people should learn from their parents and try to buy whatever they need to solve their problem. For the hoarder’s, they should learn to resist the temptation and try for their making decisions.
the author points out that people usually think that hoarding is same as obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD , but psychiatrists claim that they are two different type . they say recording of their brain activity shows that it different from each other . hoarder usually think about their own possession but OCD usually also think about themselves and others possession . by some methods maybe it’s possible treat them .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisin my opinion , at first we should review what caused hoarder tend to be have this behavior . why they thing that anything is not for tomorrow ? Because they’re worry about future. They think some goods will be finished tomorrow. Best treat is that we show them other pattern of people about buying and keeping stuffs. We should learn them we are living in 2012. By internet everything to buy is possible because everybody has his own major and we can help each others.
Yeah, I see what you mean.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMakes me think of my parents' generation, the WWII kids, who were worrying food hoarders. Every time something aggressive happened in the world they would buy enormous supplies of canned food, sugar, flour, salt, toiletpaper. Half our cellar was filled with the stuff. Definitely not the same as a messy hoarder.
The article states that people with OCD are completely diffrent from hoarders.In the opposite of past ideas hoarders splurge on buying and buy things impulse because they are worried about making wrong decisions about THEIR possessions.Recent study shows that people with OCD are concerned about ownership of everyone but hoarders are just worried about themselves.So it shows that hoarders should be treated differently than OCD.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs far as I'm concerned,we have to find the source of these disorders and I think it refers to their childhood.I mean we have to check these people's relationships when they were kids to find out why they are indulging on doing everything.I opine that they have to be treated sooner to get rid of these disorders.
The article states that hoarder must behave differently from OCD. These days scientists find out hoarding is the one that store things for nos reason. Scientists test on their brain activity, hoarder brain activity is very low and because of that they store things up and they may also make wrong decision. Researchers say that they mention being treated differently.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI opine that we have 2 disease category:1.hoarder 2.OCD . people who have OCD splurge on buying stuff but hoarder can't think well about their possessions in home. I think for OCD we must don't give them money or take their money for about 1 or 2 month then they avoid impulse buying . I have a hunch that we can change hoarder because of some reason . I finally wish that people who have on of these diseases become healthy asap.
well,by the way the author puts it, hoarding and OCD are different from each other. OCD infected people's brain can't recognize the persons needs in buying so they buy insanely and limitless, without thinking about the use or intention of the bought object, so they just indulge their desire of buying stuff.at the other hand hoarders are the opposites of the OCD infected. their mind doesn't have any problem in finding their needs or figuring out whether they need something or not. they only obtain pleasure from buying stuff, so they splurge on buying things and don't have any problem making a decision to get rid of them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisso, to get to the point, both of these people have some problem with their brains. some lack the ability of deciding to buy or not to buy and can't use their logic, some others can decide about buying or not, but they are simply obsessed with the pleasure and joy of buying, so strong that they can no more control it.
Thanks Lord that I'm none of these... :D
The article states that some folk believe hoarders and OCD are like each other but it’s a misconception. Psychiatrists tell that they are 2 different groups. By the way researchers say that hoarding behavior has its own certain symptoms and those kinds of people should be treated a different way with OCDs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think hoarders don’t think well about their possessions when they want to buy something. Hoarders splurge on buying and they have impulse buying and compelsive shopping just because they think maybe they make wrong decisions about their money.
To make the long story short: We should be sure that hoarders have brain problem. When they see something and feel that they need it, buy it immediately. I mean they don’t know that tomorrow is the God’s day too and they shouldn’t be stressful and worry about the future . They should be learned other ways for buying and also for living.
The article states that hoarding is a sub type of OCd.OCD is characterized by the presence of intrusive thoughts in other words obessions.Compared to hoarding which is an inability to resist the impulse to acquire something regardless of need or the ability to throw out meaningful or things that they believe are meaningful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismy opinion:
I believe that sure there almost alike or a form of each other but when you try and work with some with that is a hoarder they have alot more emoition baggage and will fight with every bit to keep or do what ever they were doing in the begining to those whom have ocd .
I believe that hoarder and OSD are different with each other.OSD is not just for buying,it is for cleaning,washing the dishes,their hands and ,,,,.But hoarder is just for buying and keeping.I belive that they think they have deficiency.
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