Are autistics horders?

Post Reply New Topic

My mother says that I am going to be an animal horder when I get my own place. I've always had trouble throwing things out but it never got too extreme. It took me years to part with some of my childhood toys (I had countless toys just disapear and I suspect my mom gave them away when I wasn't around). My mother is also somewhat of a horder. She is always buying toys to send to the grandkids but they never get sent. She has a closet full of VTech stuff and things she meant to send months again. So maybe hording is a learned behavior. Is hording a autistic trait?

I have a lot of videogames hoarded, although I certainly wouldn't mind selling off some of them or trading them in for new games...

I have trouble letting go of old things. I still have my favorite toys from childhood. I don't play with them anymore but I can't bring myself to let them go.

It's connected to OCD, which is an anxiety disorder and more common in autistics. So there's an indirect connection.

Would warn you against getting more than three small animals in any given house, or two large ones. The sensory overload you get from the animal smells of any more than that is just not worth it. You can only save so many.

When it comes to packratting, probably so. We get very attached to objects, AND we abhor change. Throwing out an object we are attached to, even though it may not be what NT's would consider having sentimental value, would upset us. And yes the OCD comes into play... I paid good money for that and I may *NEED* it some day... it would be foolish to have to buy another one. I also abhor waste and think that most Americans are ridiculously wasteful. I don't want to contribute to the landfill. As for selling it, you can never get back what you paid for it, unless it happens to be a collectible that has increased in value, in which case there is even *MORE* reason to hang on to it. Yep, I'm a proud packrat.

Not necessarily.

I'm certainly a horder, and I know that I come from a family tree with a legacy for hording. Now, it may be just a coincidence that I happen to be both a horder and an aspie, or hording may be some trait of the greater "Cladogram of Assorted Mental Uniquenesses." (I cannot post the aforementioned cladogram that I drew, but imagine something greatly amusing.)

Lemme see if I can draw one.

[Edit]: nope. You're just going to have to imagine it.

BTW, I've never heard that AS was genetic, but I'm under the impression that it is seeing as my mother's side is riddled with assorted mental uniquenesses. (The only one diagnosed was my uncle with bipolar disorder, but in hindsight we suspect a lot more.)

My thinking exactly. Also, I often save wrappings that mail orders or gifts come in, because they may be of use. And while I've only kept my favourite toy, I still have all my books and folders from school, as well as a lot of children's and adult books from thirty or forty years ago. In fact, whenever I weed out my bookcase, it's usually the newest books that get thrown out, not the oldest ones.

I am an extreme hoarder.

Interesting post. I exhibited some characteristics of it in my youth, but I've pretty much outgrown it. One day I woke up and realized I was tired of the clutter and useless junk. Today, I have no problem letting go. I happily sell or donate items that have lost their significance or use to me. Now I could probably fit everything I own in the rear seat & trunk of my car.

My mother, who is totally NT, is still a mild hoarder in denial.

Lemme put it this way:

When a pair of my trousers got a rip in the knee.... I cut the legs off to make the trousers into shorts, but couldn't convince myself to throw away the legs themselves, as I figured I could use them as arm-sleeves on some sort of funky DIY shirt or something.

I still haven't used them.
I have bundles of ripped clothing in various portions of the room. I wouldn't wear it as-is... but I'd like to sew it all together some day.

I once went through the habit of collecting 2-litre drinks bottles... THAT was messy and pointless. I left them behind when I moved home.

I have trouble throwing things away. It's better than it used to be though; when I was a kid I had trouble throwing anything away, even pieces of trash. I felt like they all had personalities, and I didn't want to lose them. Weird, I know

yes, completly! people- in the past when i had freinds who used to visit- would tell me i could open a shop, as i had so much stuff..

i dont fit the learns-weird-facts profile, but i do just OWN millions of things,a nd have a storage unit, beside my flat.
though i have sold loads of it off on ebay, as i need the money, i would prob not have done so otherwise, as my argument has always been taht i do not own too much stuff, i just have too small a home..

owning lots of things makes me comfortable- some kind of security. i like things, and have always got on better with things than people. they are just nicer!! !! some of it's ocd-ish, but it mainly just because i like something- why not own a lot more of it??
its more addiction, i think... i go without food to buy things...

LOL, I have the same problem! They're all still in the crawl space in the parental home, even though it's been over 35 years since I've used most of them. My son did play with a few of them when he was little, though. And hey, who knows? If they're still in good enough shape, they might actually be worth something someday.

I have a terrible problem with hoarding things and letting things go in general, however. I've always been like that. It used to drive my mom crazy, since she's the opposite. It probably still does, since I just drove home, to OH from SD and back again, for a family visit and to finally take a bunch of stuff home that I had to leave when I moved to SD three years ago (I've flown back for holiday visits each year, but you can't take much on a plane). We spent the week going through my stuff and she couldn't believe everything I wanted to keep or take. She thought more than half of it should have been thrown out or left. But I loved reading old letters, cards, school and college papers and notebooks, pictures, etc., and had no intention of leaving or pitching them. I keep EVERYTHING, always have through the years. Of course, the six boxes of books, alone (and there were still more I had to leave behind) weighed my car down tremendously.

Fortunately for me, and for him as well, hubby is the same way. When we moved in together, most of our stuff had to go in the basement 'cause the house is too small and there just isn't room for all of it. He's also a "clutterer", just like I am, no clear space is safe from him. At least I make some effort to keep it straight and somewhat organized, but he doesn't even do that. My Aspie teenage son is the same way, and I'm not exactly organized, either, so I'm kinda used to it. I gave up on trying to keep the bedroom even mildly clutter-free and have solved it by allowing him to do whatever he wants with one side of the room, while I can have my own "mess" on the other side. That works better than nagging him to clear it up all the time, and really, if I did that, then that means I'd have to clear up my own side of things.

My Aspie son also has trouble letting things go, as do hubby and I; maybe it's some kind of AS/ASD trait. I think it might have something to do with not liking a lot of changes, wanting things to stay the same, etc.

I am the opposite. I hate clutter. I throw things away but there was a time when I was a child when I was like that but there came a point in time when I decided to let go of things I was attached to as a way of being strong and letting go. Now I feel that I go overboard with throwing stuff away!

i am a serial hoarder. i just for some unexplained reason hate to throw anything away. and i mean anything. i have a large collection of the plastic trays that fruit and vegetables come in.