Changing a lifelong habit is a difficult
thing. Even after clearing one's home,
many people who hoard have to always
keep on top of their hoarding behavior.
People can and do change and it is
possible to say one is over something
like this, but until we know more about
what causes this, we won't know what
a "cure" will look like. One important
component to successful treatment is
not only to clear out each room, but to
learn how to live and be comfortable
with a cleared room. -Randy Frost, Ph.D., Expert on
Compulsive Hoarding»
Dr. David Tolin suggests»,
"The question
to ask yourself is not whether you can
use the object, but whether you really
will use the object.
A good rule of thumb is that if you
haven't used an object in over a year—
say, you didn't even know it was there
until you found it on the bottom of a pile—
you probably can live without it."
"Beating compulsive hoarding requires
you to face things that are very scary,"says Dr. Tolin. "I can't tell you not to be
scared, because you can't really control
that. But you can be brave. Be willing to
face your fears. Be willing to risk making
the wrong decision. The people who gain
the most are usually the people who are
willing to risk the most."
"If you have to go through a long and
complicated decision-making process for
each and every item before you get rid
of it, you'll never get free of the clutter,"Dr. Tolin says.» "Most decisions are not
that complicated.
If you find that the decision takes you
more than a couple of minutes for a
particular object, you are probably
making it too complicated."
