Pack-ratting

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I just traded stories with someone who heard about a packratter who had trash piled waist high. I thought my story was bad but her story included 4 foot curtains of mold dropping off the ceilings. Mine included fruit fly carcasses.
Both people in the stories were packrats - people who save almost everything. I wondered if this is something faced by people with Autism.
I wondered if it had anything to do with the AS predilection for collecting.

What do you think?

Well, I know for me it's not so much a predilection for collecting (although it's certainly part of it) but because I attach sentimental value to many things, including things people would consider garbage or junk like candy wrappers, plastic bags, rocks, receipts, bottle caps, pieces of paper with drawings on them, blankets, stuffed animals, old clothes, etc. and can't bear to throw any of them away because I'm so attached.

My mom has a bunch of stuff stocked away in boxes, and she also has AS, which is why I put other, however, I don't really packrat, in fact, I'm too unorganized to collect stuff, just look at my room.

I do packrat some things, like video game memorablia, whenever I open a new consle box, I save the box, the inserts, the ads, etc. But other than that, really, no.

We gotta get all those boxes of my mom's out of my garage anyway, because we're tyring to get a game room set up in there (we've already got a TV, two couches, one chair, and all the games we could get, now all we need is a giant A/V hub so we can plug in all the consles at once and a broadband internet box out there and we're all set).

i have to work hard to keep from being overwhelmed. i like to keep all parts of the box for things but i also keep these long after the item is gone. i have instructions for things from 20 years ago. every year i try to get rid of more than i take in but it is hard, especially thinking what can i get rid of so i can buy the pirate flag and then forgetting that i was going to get rid of something.

I don't keep things aribtrarily. I voted other becasue I don't count it as collecting. I keep books forever, and notes from classes.

Judging from the story I have to be "other". I say a lot of useless things and things from when I was a kid that mean nothing to me.

I try to keep everything but my wife tries to talk me out of it my answer is alway what if i need it some day got a lot of stuff that I probaly will never need but its hard to throw things away even if broken I'll always try to fix it.

My room is the cleanest in the house. Except the closet. Yeah I'm a packrat to a small extent

Actually my closet, while not looking great inside, still looks better than any other closet in this house, lol.

My computer hard drive is another story. I can't stand having software installed on it that I know/think I will never use.

My family are the same way, so it's always been "the norm", only recently realized it's "unusual" or problematic. They've never said anything about it-since everyone kept stuff, no one was outside the situation to point it out.
Hoarding, yes I do it too. As a defense against uncertainty & tough times, etc. Mess & confusion menace me but also comfort me, so I'm a conflicted packrat. Painfully sentimental or emotional about things that contain memories for me, don't feel able to get rid of these things. Disposal bothers me, I'd much rather re-gift or give away instead, but recycling (and thrift shops) are too picky to take most of what I've got. Not at stage of mountains of trash, but can mostly understand how a person can lose control of their environment/possessions.
Don't want to have to buy a new thing every time one little part fails, also as soon as one buys newest thing it's instantly obsolete. That's technology for you, another price of progress. But that's a whole other multi-faceted issue.

Hoarding is now being recognized as its own psychological disorder, although it's probably on the same spectrum as OCD (if they don't have an OCD spectrum yet, they need one!). It has a lot in common with severe OCD, but instead of having things in immaculate order or cleaniness, hoarders collect impulsively and can't throw away, as the mere thought causes them profound anxiety. There's often indications of EFD with hoarders too, and this combined with the condition's resistence to medication and other conventional form of intervention may point to a neurological root, putting it relatively close to AS.

I voted other. I'm neither OCD nor sentimental enough to hoard. My problem is purely EFD - I have a hard time keeping my stuff organized. I forget to throw things away. I forget what I have and how much I have. I have to make a concerted effort to keep my dwelling clutter free, and usually I can manage for about 2 two weeks... a month tops... and then suddenly one day, it looks like a tornado came through. Then I get discouraged and mad at myself and I don't want to deal with the mess, and blah blah blah...the glorious EFD cycle continues.

I actually enjoy throwing stuff out. It's liberating. It's pleasurable. I like not feeling attached and being able to say "I don't need this anymore - buh bye!" There's a little happy haze of satisfaction I feel when I close up a full trash bag and haul it out to the bin. I know when I go back into my dwelling there'll be more space for me and less things for me to deal with. It's nice. Sometimes it even makes me smile.

But it's my EFD, my rotten, stinking EFD. What's worse is being in a disorganized and cluttered environment is one of the triggers for my depression. So I have had to train myself to see the clutter that my EFD doesn't see, and disciplined myself to deal with it. Some days are easier than others, but I'm getting better. (I can say that right now because I know none of you can see the holy mess my bedroom is right now. )

That's because books are forever. Who needs diamonds when you have books??

There is an OCD spectrum. http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/o ... 0_ocd.html

http://www.ocfoundation.org/ocf1010a.htm

Blah! OCD suffere here, and I hoard a little. I don't know if I could call it horading, I just rarely throw away random trash in my room. But there are plenty of things that I keep for no real reason.

oh brother ! !! !! !! ! he's not kidding about keeping EVERYTHING! he'll keep a part for something we got rid of years ago ! we currently have 2 computers that don't work, a nintendo system that doesn't work, a controller that doesn't work, etc,etc...