metro >> on the cover Hoarders come from different backgrounds; the common denominator is emotional attachment. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "Hoarding often results in left home. reaction to loss of control, fear of "I could never have friends over; property being taken away, and there was no room': he said. "To my loss of security' Shulman said. mother, getting rid of stuff is like He added that the generalized giving away a piece of yourself" value that many Jews place on This kind of situation is typical, acquiring things can cause these says Shulman, who has worked people to become hoarders. In Terren ce with people whose homes are filled Shulm an addition to those that he treats with excessive amounts of items professionally, Shulman said he ranging from jewelry and clothing has seen evidence of hoarding to expired coupons, empty yogurt among Jewish people he knows containers and even used bandages. on a personal basis, including Retiree Jonah H. said he has been some friends and relatives. trying to get rid of the piles of old Jim M., one of several local paperwork that have gradually Jewish hoarders interviewed who overtaken more of his living space. wanted to remain anonymous, "The room isn't really that small; said his family never ate a meal it's just that I have so much junk at the kitchen table because it Debbie it makes it look small," he said. "I was perpetually covered with Stanley don't know why I'm holding onto newspapers and other clutter his this stuff. I'm trying to let go of ex-wife refused to remove. Every things, but it's a slow process:' time he would try to clear the mess away, Shulman believes that "a complicated she would become extremely agitated, equation of risk factors:' which includes telling family members not to "touch her genes, chemical imbalance, heredity and stuff" environment, determines whether a per- A 2010 article in Time magazine esti- son develops a hoarding disorder. He also mated that between 6 million and 15 mil- attributes the behavior to what he calls lion people in the United States have the "spiritual risk factors:' such as childhood mental health disorder known as hoarding. trauma or other emotionally wounding The condition has received attention in experiences. recent years from popular television shows "There may be also be some organic dif- such as Hoarders and Hoarding: Buried ferences in the brain of a hoarder, but it is Alive. possible to build new neuronal pathways "Exploitainment" is the word used by to change the behavior," said Shulman, Clinton Township therapist Debbie Stanley founder and director of the Franklin-based to describe those shows, which she claims Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, are unrealistic and misleading. Spending and Hoarding. "They show the worst-case scenarios, There are no statistics on the incidence people with very little insight and a lot of hoarding among Jewish people; however, of squalor': said Stanley, who specializes some experts believe certain factors may in treating chronic disorganization and cause Jews to engage in hoarding behavior. hoarding. "My clients are well functioning Holocaust survivors may be more likely — some are extremely high functioning — to stockpile items such as food and house- and they are not dirty." hold goods, says Dr. Charles Slow, director Stanley added that the shows' quick-fix of programming for Holocaust Survivors solutions, where years of clutter disappear and Families at Jewish Senior Life. in one weekend, are misrepresentative. "Many survivors who went through such She said that two years of treatment, extreme deprivation, including starvation, including psychotherapy and hands-on have a sense of fear that what they have decluttering, is a reasonable time period could be taken away again': Silow said. "As for achieving a successful outcome. The they built new lives, many would accu- transformation can take place more quickly mulate things like canned goods or extra when the client agrees to use outside help to linens. They want to psychologically assure perform the clean-up, but Stanley stresses themselves that it won't happen again." that the person doing the hoarding should Shulman agrees that the Holocaust as make the decisions about what to discard. well as other individual and collective "Stripping away a person's coping mecha- traumas such as war, violence and anti- nism before a better one has been gradually Semitism can trigger hoarding behavior. established is not only cruel, but it doesn't 8 October 13 • 2011 work': she said. Shulman said people who hoard often exhibit related compulsive behaviors such as kleptomania, shoplifting, and excessive shopping and spending. Hoarding can include people whose homes are overrun by animals to the point of posing a health hazard. Many individuals now engage in a process known as digital hoarding — their computers are filled with thousands of emails, photos and electronic files they are emotionally unable to delete. Nina J. decided to seek professional help as she approached her 70th birthday. Always a collector, Nina now has more than 2,000 pairs of earrings, countless pieces of costume jewelry, which she stores away in plastic boxes, and a bag filled with 200 nightgowns she has never worn. "I would save things for best, and best never came': said Nina, who also has so many houseplants it takes an entire day to water them. Nina also engaged in compulsive shop- lifting, a behavior she has since overcome through a combination of therapy and 12-step meetings. "I was arrested three times, and it still wasn't a deterrent': she said. "It began to make me sick; it was a real conflict between the person I knew I could be and a crazy lady" Nina still has not overcome her compul- sion to shop and stockpile items she knows she will probably never use. She has tried to get rid of some of her possessions through consignment shops, but ends up returning to the store to buy them back. "I once gave some clothes away to a friend and went into terrible mourning and agony;' she said. "I humiliated myself by asking for them back. She just laughed at me. I find that people just can't compre- hend; they have no sympathy." Nina felt the therapy she received did not help her overcome her emotional attach- ment to the possessions that fill several areas of her colonial home. "No amount of looking at why was help- ful': she said. "Many other people have the same why's, but they don't hoard." Stanley believes the key to success- ful treatment is getting to the root of the hoarding behavior. She said it is common for concerned family members to want to swoop in and perform a major cleanup, thinking this will resolve the problem. This kind of well-intentioned intervention, she says, can do more harm than good. "It's not about the stuff,' she said. "First you have to honor the fact that this behav- ior is serving them in some way." Stanley has worked with clients who used the clutter as a kind of barricade; they felt being surrounded by a lot of things pro- tected them from robbers or other invaders. "I've heard people say they feel more vul- nerable when the clutter begins to go:' she said. "I tell clients, `First you have to figure out what the hoarding is giving you. If it's safety, then let's find another way to make you feel safe.'" Sometimes adding extra locks or install- ing an alarm system will reduce the fear so the client can begin to deal with the mess. Hoarding, in its extreme, can pose serious health and safety hazards. West Bloomfield Fire Chief Jay Wiseman esti- mates that his staff members encounter at least one hoarding situation in any given month when responding to medical emer- gencies. Wiseman said that severe clutter makes rescue efforts more difficult for EMS workers, who have encountered homes where floors are completely covered with shoulder-high stacks of newspapers, piles of clothing and overflowing shopping bags. Navigating through narrow paths, known How Do You Identify A Hoarder? These questions are taken from the book Cluttered Lives, Empty Souls: Compulsive Stealing, Spending and Hoarding by Terrence Shulman. • Are some of the living (not storage) areas in your home cluttered? • Do you have trouble walking through areas in your home because of clutter? • Do you have trouble discarding things, even those you no longer use? • Does the clutter in your home cause you to feel stress? • Do you have strong urges to buy things for which you have no immediate use? • Does the clutter in your home keep you from inviting people over to visit? • Do you feel unable to discard possessions even after deciding you want to get rid of them? • Has compulsive buying caused financial stress or difficulty?