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HEALTH 3 | Stouffville Sun-Tribune | Thursday, November 24, 2016 Hoarding habit tough to break TIM KELLY tkelly@yrmg.com It all started, innocently enough, with a childhood rock collection. But decades later, the middleaged mother of three sons found herself raging in a wild family fight that left her temporarily homeless, barred from a house so stuffed with papers, furniture, clothes and other hoarded goods she was banned from living there. How did it get to this for the Vaughan resident? Now 54, Sandra (not her real name) grew up in Toronto, the daughter of what she describes as poor Italian immigrants who she said were both hoarders. "It was more my father than my mother. They had the immigrant mentality and it was whatever you could get for free," she said in an interview last month. She believes she picked up her hoarding habit from her parents and said her desire to acquire more and more stuff comes down to a "fear of being poor." Sandra, who works in the education field and lives on her own after a divorce four years ago, said her hoarding came and went in phases over the decades but intensified when she split up with her husband. In addition, her three twenty-something sons chose to live with their father, so now alone, Sandra was free to hoard at will. And she did. "I would get a high from collecting the stuff, a physical high. I could pick up a huge, heavy cabinet but then found I couldn't lift it down off a truck," she said in describing how hoarding made her feel. She started piling "collectables" such as papers, clothes and furniture items she found by the roadside on recycling days, in her sons' old rooms and the house eventually became so full, it was A hoarding disorder forced a Vaughan woman from her home. Above, the images show the state of her home before and after CHATS helped her to declutter. With others, the work is on cognitive HOW TO HELP difficult to get in and out of the fire department allowed her to therapy where the effort goes in tryWhen it comes to hoarding, forced front and back doors. live there again, Sandra has been ing to teach clients to think differently clearouts don't work. Eventually, something had to getting help with her hoarding about why they hoard. "It's very traumatizing and you're only give. issue from CHATS York Region. Melo said she finds that hoarders tend focusing on the symptom of hoarding, The big break for Sandra came "I started in July with CHATS, to have much more stressful lives than not the underlying issue," said occuthis past April, when her famI see a therapist and my family non-hoarders which may be what helps pational therapist Alda Melo, who has ily carried out an intervention doctor is aware of it (hoarding)," trigger hoarding behaviour. seen at least 100 hoarders over the of sorts. Sandra said. "Many also have other mental health years in her practice. She said her sons came to her She is working hard to slowly illnesses, which is very common and Melo, who is working with CHATS York house and started trying to throw declutter her home and shows off may be living with depression. We see Region to help counsel hoarders in out some items. She confronted before-and-after photos of rooms very high rates of that. Obsessive coma program sponsored by the Ontario them and amid a lot of shouting that were once a hoarding nightpulsive behaviour is also common" with Trillium Foundation, said in a forced and yelling, a neighbour called mare and later, spotless. hoarders, she said. clearout, "what we find is six months the police. Once the cops noticed "It's very difficult to stop hoardHer approach, in general, is try to try to or a year later, you have as much stuff the state of her home, they called ing and to declutter but I don't go teach them skills, modification strateas you had before, if not more. And it the fire department, who told her out on recycling and garbage days gies and changing behaviours. builds distrust toward providers." she couldn't stay there because (to grab stuff) anymore," Sandra "They may not be ready to start discardMelo said hoarding is defined as a the entrances to the back and said. ing but ready to start reducing acquisimental disorder with varying degrees front door were so cluttered it was She avoids stressful situations tion. It goes hand in hand. of severity. And treating it depends on a fire and safety hazard. as best she can, as she figures the client. "There is no expectation or thinking that It was the wakeup call Santhey trigger hoarding behaviour you will cure hoarding disorder," Melo "With some clients we use harm-reducdra desperately needed and it has and believes, like any addict, she'll said. tion and try to focus on minimizing changed her life, she said. always have a desire to hoard. risk. It's not required that the individual She did add it takes years to work Forced to live at a friend's home She said she'll just have to fight stops hoarding, but organizing and through hoarding issues and client's for two months while coming to the urge to do it. discarding only what's necessary," she must be determined to stay with it if said. terms with her issues and getting "It's always going to be a part they want to declutter. her house to a state where the of me," Sandra said. 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