The comorbid condition of hoarding and depression

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I have a history of fighting both of these issues...I am curious if anyone else has as well.

When I entered high school, I found an incredible amount of difficulty socializing which led to social anxiety. This continued for 1 1/2 years. My parents offered no support for me and they seem to not care about me at all outside of providing things essential to life.

That has changed slightly, but I regress.

I withdrew from people and began listening to music almost the entirety of my time alone to fill the void...this led to digital and physical hoarding of every conceivable genre...it didn't help that my dad encouraged the hoarding.

Has this happened to others on Wrong Planet forums? I am curious to your experiences.

I'm going to send you a PM if you don't mind about a forum just about that.

_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I don't know if there are any risk factors involved in becoming a hoarder. I'm concerned that my daughter might end up as one. She won't let us get rid of anything. She even wanted to keep some letters, when she was helping her Daddy with shredding and was distraught when we took an old rug to the dump. She has way more toys than she should have, not because we buy a lot, it's only because she has had most of them for years and claims that everything is her 'favourite'.

I'm a pretty compulsive collector of various things. I won't say I hoard stuff, though I do have too many pets in my reptile collection. And a lot of books stacked about in the organized Chaos of my bedroom.

Matthew
PS.
I suffered a Major depression in my Senior year of High School, so I can relate to THAT issue!

<< Moved from general autism discussion, by member of moderating team. >>

I've been dx'ed with Major Depressive Disorder and I'd say I have been close to qualifying as a hoarder at a few points in my life, but never really all the way there. I feel like I've gotten a bit better over the last couple of years. I think my borderline hoarding had a lot to do with my stepmother kicking me out of the house when I was 16, and having to abandon almost all of my childhood belongings because of it as I had nowhere to store them. For a long time I was so broke and had so little that I hated to throw out anything I liked or that was useful, and I think even when I got past the necessity of holding on to things, it was very hard to part with them. I've always developed attatchments to objects, anyway--starting when I was very young.

Overall I have long since stopped hoarding through a mentor. WIthout being forced to determine whether something had value or not though I would likely still be one.

Being poor does have a lot to do with hoarding...I just became very attached to my bass guitar and CDs over time. I seriously considered buying CD Lots occasionally recently but my mentor would be against that, so no chance of that happening.

No, I don't physically hoard items as much. But something happened to me last year, and shortly after I'd gone to a gig. During the gig I was depressed, out of it, and anxious and didn't even get to go near the stage. But I still obsess over the music of the band I've heard that night (didn't really know them before, thought it'd be cool to go or something).

when i was depressed, i didn't feel like doing a goddamned thing. i totally lacked the energy required for hoarding, or anything else for that matter. when i was better, i started hoarding like a sonofagun and haven't looked back. but in recent years, after having to move into a tiny tin can out in the woods, i've had to become very selective as to what i hoard. what doesn't fit in the car or tin can, must be palmed off on somebody else who could give it a more spacious home. i have a very uncomfortable love seat that i've been trying to get my sister to take off my hands, it just takes up space and is just a platform for my stuff. giving it a new home would give me a much needed 50 cubic feet of additional space, to hoard something else.

Auntblabby, why not put the loveseat on Freecycle? You can give it away to someone who needs it that way, and they will come get it.

Here is a link to a forum about hoarding/squalor. Many of the people there seem to suffer from depression, PTSD, OCD, etc along with the issue of their home. It's a really nice and friendly, nonjudgemental place, and it's there to support people who are hoarders mainly but also people who just can't clean for whatever reason, and who end up living in squalor. Some are hoarders only (clean house but hoarded) some are squalorers only (messy and filthy house but without a lot of stuff) and some are both. Many of the hoarders have problems becoming attached to the objects and feel anxiety when throwing them away, even if they are obvious trash.

Check it out, I post there sometimes because I have trouble cleaning when I get depressed.

<Link to Hoarding/Squalor/Depression forum>

_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I asked OliveOilMom if I should share my story so others may be able to connect...So I shall.

Essentially, when I was in 10th grade, I was completely lost and confused about what I enjoyed doing. This led to a completely insane structure that constantly caused me stress, so instead of doing anything differently, I would just retreat back into music.

A few months later, I came across someone who too was fed upwith the system and was feeling misunderstood by everyone. I would later be brought out of my delusions to realise (realize?) he was a paranoid conpiracy theorist. He led me to bands such as Radiohead and R.E.M., and taught me how to appreciate art, among bad things.

It led to a stint where I wanted acceptance by no group at all, which led to conspiracy theories, taking foolish oopinions for the sake of being different, and multiple other nuiscances. Tired of how I was being and just mad at myself for being so uselessly lost, I fell into intense depression.

This crippled me completely. The someone, Greg, was my only friend outside of an obsessive gamer named Adam who would constantly serrate me for suggesting we do something other than play video games for hours straight. He also led to a psychological obsession in my trying to figure out his brain processes, which lasts to this day.

It wasn't until I truly had a full psychology teacher in 11thgrade until I realised that a misanthropic attitude about people was severely damging my social life. So, I eventually decided I wanted to collect music on cd with the help of an old mentor (whom I will likely make several posts about). However, that has come to become hoarding, until about 5 months ago.

I still buy cds relentlessly. It must be a comforting device. I got 30 cds in the past 4 months.

my mother-in-law (well, essentially, not legally) has some pretty big problems with hoarding. i lived at her house for a couple months a year or so ago (complicated story, not a good idea), and it was...rough.

I used to be a "collector", of all kinds of things. Spent lots of time and money in junk shops, thrift stores. It got worse over the years, and so did my depression. For me, the collecting was a kind of distraction from how depressed I was, but quite a negative one, and the collecting was about not dealing with losses, fears, guilt (a lot of undeserved guilt, which is actually a part of depression sometimes).

I may look like a hoarder, but I'm not sure. It's true that I'm drowning in stuff but the reason is less that I want to hold on to things than the process of getting rid of things is very hard for me. Some of the stuff I keep because I think I'm going to use it one day or fix it and use it or someone gave it to me and I don't want to hurt their feelings. Stuff I clearly want to get rid of is difficult because of the problem of inertia. There's a lot of stuff I find when I try to sort through it all that is clearly useless, like junk mail. I don't know why I don't throw it away when I first get it. I just put it aside and forget about it and then later it gets shoved in a box to deal with later and then that box is forgotten about. I think my issues are more ADD related.