Reddit Reddit reviews Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

We found 4 Reddit comments about Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Health, Fitness & Dieting
Books
Mental Health
Compulsive Behavior
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things
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4 Reddit comments about Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things:

u/sethra007 · 14 pointsr/hoarding

> Is the best place to live for a hoarder in a place with a lot of land for all the clutter - somewhere with a few acres?

No.

Hoarding is a disorder and a compulsion. If left untreated, a hoarder will continue to hoard up any space provided, no matter how large.

Lots of people try to cope with hoarding with larger homes, storage facilities, any additional space they can afford, and it doesn't solve anything. We've had people post here about hoarders in their lives who've hoarded one home past livability, then bought another home and began hoarding that place up. In their book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, hoarding researchers Skeketee and Frost discuss a wealthy hoarder who had hoarded up three separate homes--large townhomes, I might add.

Space is a catalyst for hoarders; providing more just puts them into overdrive. Giving a hoarder more room for stuff is like saying to a drug addict, "Maybe the solution for you is more cocaine."

u/VelvetElvis · 7 pointsr/IAmA

I'm a bit of an OCD hoarder. It's not the worst part of my OCD and meds mostly keep it under control.

I just thought I'd drop you a book recommendation that I just finished reading.

It's Stuff -- Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee.
http://www.amazon.com/Stuff-Compulsive-Hoarding-Meaning-Things/dp/015101423X

I thought it was really good. It's another book to add to my collection of books I keep in case I might need to use them as reference at some time in the future :)

u/japaneseknotweed · 2 pointsr/relationships
  1. Move out. If you're living with it, you're condoning it.

  2. Get educated. Start with reading "Stuff", you're going to find it VERY validating.

  3. Start getting REALLY clear with yourself: what do you want for yourself? Do you want a healthy life? A relationship? Can you have one living here?

    The hardest thing is going to be the guilt. You are going to feel like the world's worst daughter. Here's something to remember:

    Deep down, your father loves you.
    He wants you to be happy, healthy, and to have the best life possible.


    In a normal family, the parents' actions help their children have this.

    Your dad's actions are controlled by his illness.

    To which do you owe your deepest loyalty? Your dad's truest wishes for you, or his illness's demands to be accommodated/validated?

    And when it comes to supporting him,

    Do you owe it to him to help in the way his illness wants to be helped, or to do the things that will help him the most to be stable and healthy in the long run? And do you trust yourself to be old enough, wise enough to know the difference?

    This is going to purely suck, but you can do it.

    Your best tactic is repeating, over and over and over again, the absolute truth:

    "Dad, I love you, but I can't live here because it's making me sick. I will come to visit, but I will need to leave once I start having trouble breathing. "

    Then do it. Every time.

    He is going to have to come to his own conclusions about what is important. Start by making him see what is at stake.

    AND GO GET THAT BOOK!



u/KlueBat · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Read this. Hoarding does not make sense to those not afflicted. Reading this book should help you understand the thought process of a horder and help you determine if this is the root cause behind your parant's messy nature.