Is hoarding an AS trait?

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I believe it's the STUFF by Frost and Steketee. I hope that's the right one, it's the one I ordered.

Thank you! Have ordered it myself now

Amazon just let me know mine had shipped. Let me know what you think about it and I'll do the same.

My AS son collects all kinds of things. His father and I were divorced 21 years ago so what my son calls the nuclear family are rarely all together. But we were yesterday. When he realized this he insisted he wanted a photo of the six of us--an odd choice since the entire three generation crew was there except for three of the grandchildren. I would have liked a picture of the whole bunch but he was adamant that it be just his "nuclear" family. I couldn't figure out why. His kind stepmother suggested he wanted his infant son to know what the family he was raised by looked like.

I felt as though I was participating in a collection of the way things were in his past.

We acknowledge that AS people are unable to understand other people's thought processes. I don't question that but think it's reciprocal. I'm your run-of-the-mill NT and don't have a clue to what is going through his AS mind. And never did.

if it is then my nana got it lol lol

Hoarding in general, no. Hoarding items related to a "special" interest, yes.

I think he is getting upset because moving the object causes a change that makes things less familiar.

I used to get quite annoyed when my mother rearranged the furniture.

My friend has a PPD-NOS and he's quite the compulsive shopper/hoarder, and gets upset when things are moved.

He will by something because he likes looking in shops, he likes buying the items, and he likes having it. He will find some spot for it and that is usually where the object will be interned, unopened, for all eternity.

Honestly I could throw about 1/4 of the stuff out and he'd never notice because he has so much of it, but of course that's not my place.

They will have to clean up for the baby so it doesn't get ahold of anything when it starts to crawl.

[quote="Chronos"]Hoarding in general, no. Hoarding items related to a "special" interest, yes.

I think he is getting upset because moving the object causes a change that makes things less familiar.

You'right on both counts. Books are a particular obsession. He can sense a change without fail. I don't see any particular order to his books but he can go right to a particular book. I never noticed if he puts it back in the same place but I don't think this would be a problem because he will have been the one who will have placed it. His work area is the most sacrosanct part of the apartment. He doesn't even like it if a paper is lifted and to my eye replaced exactly. I don't think he will be able to imagine what must be removed and/or shifted upwards before the baby begins crawling.

I guess it can be.

I bought Stuff by Frost and Stekatee. Well written and informative, I read it virtually non-stop. Hoarding is complex: partly OCD but clearly sounding like AS in many ways. The writers first (and frequently referred to throughout the book) subject had a lot of theories about why she hoarded. One stood out as pure AS. She collected articles she was "certain her son and daughter would find interesting" even when the son not only refused to even look at the article, but threw it out. No matter how many times he flatly rejected her articles, she just didn't accept what he said because she couldn't grasp his thought patterns. Her husband eventually walked out on her because of the hoarding. The authors didn't go into why he didn't just hire someone to cart everything away. That would have been interesting to read. He had some control of the situation--while he lived there his wife wasn't allowed to pile paper on his side of the bed and didn't.

You're right about the husband understanding he couldn't control his wife's hoarding. For all I know he filled a lot of dumpsters only to find her piles of articles regrowing. That was what my AS son did when he asked his brother and me to help him clean out his house so he could get at a wall that needed repair. He flapped and couldn't understand what should go and what should stay so every item was negotiated. But I give him credit: what finally ended up in the dumpster stayed there. A year later, different stuff filled the area.

Since I don't live with him, I was even somewhat entertained by his hoarding, But I feel some anxiety watching him with his new baby. I just hope he has enough imagination to keep the areas the baby can reach free of things that will harm the little boy.

It is disappointing watching your child rejecting the books you looked forward to reading to him. I think reading or not reading is genetic. As is each person's taste in books.