Psychosocial Adjustment Issues and Interventions Related to Hoarding (Research Paper Sample)

Psychosocial adjustment issues and interventions related to hoarding
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Introduction
Hoarding is taken to be a subtype of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). It is similar to other compulsive disorders as it is occurs when one tries to copy with anxiety arising from obsessive doubts.
Psychosocial adjustment issues and interventions related to hoarding
This disorder requires more research as it afflicts quite a number of people in the general population. This impairment affects several people in the population. It affects them in various degrees and severity. It has been deduced by researchers that about one percent of the total population suffers from compulsive hoarding. However, this number may be not a true reflection of the actual situation. The number may actually be much higher. The disorder begins to become manifested in early childhood or early adolescence. It is usually at a lower degree at this time and becomes serious in adulthood. It also runs in families.
Hoarding is characterized by having a lot of clutter in their houses. They also have problems in discarding the things they do not need (Bratiotis, 2011, p.50). The people afflicted feel the compulsion to acquire items which other people may deem worthless. These items may be sourced from garage sales and also from trash in extreme cases. In their homes, they may try to organize items and, only succeed in shifting them from one pile to another. Their possessions rule their lives and, they do not spare time for socializing with their friends and relatives. Hoarding leaves its stamp on a person’s emotions, thought processes and behavior.
People afflicted by hoarding are distinguishable as they keep stacks of newspapers. They also retain old magazines and, they do not delete junk mail. They retain trash and, used food containers with the presumption that they will come in handy. They live in cluttered spaces. As they go along their daily activities, they are not productive in their endeavors. They constantly indulge in procrastination. They have problems when it comes to decision making as they are very indecisive. They are culprits of perfectionism. They have problems in organizing items. They form strong emotional attachments while they may be deemed cold towards people. They are very particular with their possessions and restrict people from borrowing or touching them.
There are questionnaires that can be administered to clients to determine if they have the hoarding disorder. Decision making on whether to discard or not is quite a distressful notion for these people. They may completely avoid the idea. In this way, they accumulate a hoard of things. For others, they have magical ideas about what would happen if they discarded things. This is seen where a person may avoid throwing away fingernail clippings and also hair. They have an unfounded fear that if they do so they are going to come to home.
There is also another scenario whereby hoarding is associated to moral scruples. This is displayed by a perfectionist avoidance of wastage of any type (Foa, 1997, p.64). Hoarding has been studied to be genetic. The hoarding factor has been seen to follow an autosomal recessive inheritance factor. It is found on chromosome 4, 5 and 17. Several studies have been carried out. The results have indicated that in 84% of hoarders, there is a family history of hoarding.
Treatment for hoarding is a combination of various approaches. The pharmacotherapy technique has been used. However, hoarders have got a poor response to medication that is standard for obsessive compulsive disorders. Despite this, there are no pharmacotherapeutic studies that have been directed to the compulsive hoarding syndrome. There are other alternatives to the medical treatment. These include cognitive- behavioral therapy. This treatment aims at reducing the amount of clutter, an improvement on decision-making and also organizational skills. It involves bolstering the resistance to saving urges. The process of treatment involves the excavation of materials that have been saved, training on how to carry out effective decision- making. After this treatment, there is noticeable improvement. The patients show a significant reduction in acquisition of items. They also come to a realization that some of their reasons for saving are quite irrational. They also display an improvement on organizational skills. This approach requires one to address the problems that may hinder patient motivation. It also requires the input of the family members so as to enhance progress and prevent a relapse. This method of treatment is labor intensive, and it takes a while to register meaningful results.
For severe cases, the intensive multimodal treatment has been suggested. This method incorporates the integration of the pharmacotherapy and cognitive- behavioral therapy. This method has been effective for the treatment resistant cases. After dealing with the hoarding disorder, there is a need to replace it with proper behaviors. They are encouraged to structure their day. The schedule enables them to take their medications regularly. They also sleep for adequate time, and they, therefore, are able to be active during the day hours. Their mood is greatly improved. They are then supposed to carry out activities they were avoiding before. These include washing their clothes and emptying the litter bins and sorting mail. The patients carry out these activities at a designated time and day.
The patients are then graduated to bigger commitments such as holding down a part-time job. They can also be asked to carry out volunteer work. They then go another step...