Hoarding is not just the collections of loads of stuff the makes the home hard to navigate, it's a disabling condition that makes treatment for hoarding important for people who see their loved ones so debilitated.
In extreme cases, people accumulate so much stuff that they may not even be able to use the kitchen for preparing meals or find a place on their bed to sleep.
Hoarding can be found in other disorders, such as schizophrenia, and it is considered by some experts to be in the spectrum of obsessive compulsive disorders.
While psychotropic drugs are commonly used with great results to keep those in check, the choice treatment for hoarding is usually cognitive behavioral therapy for reeling in the hoarding behavior.
Note that sprawling out on a couch and reciting facts about your relationship with your mother is not what cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is all about.
Far from being a sounding board, the CBT therapist is actually quite proactive with this treatment for hoarding in chipping away at the defective thinking that generates all of the maladaptive behavior.
In actuality, the psychologist, or other therapist, may even make a home visit to work with the person in their own house.
A primary aim will be to help them thing more correctly about their stuff, and relate to it with a more normal perspective.
Note that indecision is generally a big problem, and these folks will likely have a hard time figuring out which items they believe they can part with.
On top of that, there is commonly a very notable attachment that hoarders have to their belongings.
As a result, they can get anxious at the thought of tossing something out, and they have been known to actually grieve if they part with some items.
Thus, treatment for hoarding is appropriately aimed at hammering away at these fears, and addressing the thoughts that undergird them, so as to achieve a more healthy perspective on things.
If the defective thinking can be replaced, the objective is for the person to be able to address future situations in more productive ways.
Specifically, the goal of this treatment for hoarding is to have them recognize their stinking thinking and learn to replace it with something more effective.
Hoarding is an issue that can get progressively worse throughout the course of somebody's life.
The way that it comes into someone's life, and eventually takes over, is for them sort of like watching a puppy grow in that you just get used to each stage and never appreciate the big transformation.
As a result, it's often the case that they are accustomed to their way of life and do not really seek out treatment for hoarding.
Instead, it is usually the loved ones who are ambitiously trying to intervene.
At other, more embarrassing, times, rental situations can end with a landlord pursuing eviction due to the fact that their property is not be taken care of.
It's perhaps hard to believe, but hoarders often just don't get too worried about the matter.
But, due to the progressively worsening nature of the problem, and ease with which they can relapse, treatment for hoarding is critical.
Newer brain imaging research has found correlations of diminished brain activity that can guide future medication-based treatment for hoarding towards addressing the metabolic shortfalls observed.
Yet, at the same time, cognitive behavioral therapy, when successful, is able to produce lasting change that eliminates the need to be on drugs in perpetuity.
Plus, CBT can actually empower the individual as they learn to take ownership over their behavior and the results that follow.
They can learn to see themselves as the captain of their own ship, detect erroneous patterns, and elect to proceed more effectively.
Ironically, this poignant decision-making helps them feel in control, which is something they struggle with, and it solidifies their initiative, making this an ideal treatment for hoarding.