TREATMENT BY EXPERIENCE My recovery from hoarding and how I help other people with the issue. Angela Dillon, psychologist

“IT’S HARD FOR MOST OF US TO IMAGINE WHAT GOES THROUGH THE MIND OF A HOARDER.” ….. NOT FOR ME!  My story:  The history of my issue and  How I overcame Hoarding Disorder  How I treat people with hoarding difficulties.

MY STORY  Began in childhood.  My late husband commented that I was a hoarder in my 20’s because he noticed:  I wanted to save stuff that most other people throw away  The distress I exhibited around getting rid of things  The time it took to me to make decisions about discarding things -> churning  I thought yes I’m a hoarder but didn’t really think it was a problem

MY TREATMENT OF MY HOARDING  Early treatment in my 20’s getting rid of newspapers.  Tried to develop better organisational systems  I used Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)to examine, question and change my beliefs over many years  Did experiments of getting rid of progressively more anxiety provoking items.

WHY I DECIDED TO WORK IN THIS AREA  My own experience  Hoarding Disorder (HD) having it’s own diagnostic category (2013)  Need for more psychological treatments  Help avoid enforced cleanouts or evictions.  Specialised treatment to encourage help-seeking.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT  Evidenced based treatment- Gail Steketee and Randy Frost  Work together to solve the issue.  Examples from my life where appropriate  Individualised.  Home visits  Thorough assessment –  Diagnosis  Discovering together why it started and the complex factors that contribute to the behaviour  Understanding how they came to this point helps to address the self-defeating beliefs that have led to hoarding.  Motivation and setting goals

PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT CONT..  Reducing acquiring and reducing clutter by sorting and discarding  Main approaches involved in addressing the non-acquiring and sorting are:  Skills training  Behavioural methods  Cognitive Therapy  Targeting the irrational beliefs around possessions as these drive the hoarding behaviour.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT - SOME EXAMPLES  Variety of strategies - use those that work best for the individual  Home visits  People to bring a box of items in to sort.  Have three piles to sort items into: keep, discard and undecided. Have boxes/bags ready.  Items to ‘discard’ – give-away, recycle and rubbish

PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT - SOME EXAMPLES CONT.  Talk aloud while sorting  Behavioural experiments  Leave item with me for a week  Challenging cognitive distortions  Advantages and disadvantages

 I love working in this area and it is a privilege to work with people wishing to overcome their hoarding problems  I hope knowing I recovered and that it can be treated gives hope to others & encourages them to seek help if needed. Reference: Steketee, G. & Frost, R. (2014) Treatment for Hoarding Disorder. Therapist Guide. (2 nd ed.) New York: Oxford University Press.

 I learn more and more every day  ANCORA IMPARO (“I am still learning”)