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Other Countries Hoarding Documented

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Australia

“This is not an extension of laziness,” explains Jessica Grisham, an academic from the University of New South Wales who specialises in OCD and compulsive hoarding. “It’s a psychological disorder. Some hoarding patients can get so anxious at the thought of throwing things away that they become physically ill. They will not get better without treatment.”

Some experts think between 200,000 and 500,000 Australians compulsively hoard, but others put the figure closer to 800,000.

“It’s a sleeping giant,” Chris Mogan, a clinical psychologist and expert on hoarding, says. “There is no systematic estimate of how many hoarders there are in any Australian setting. I suspect there are many, many more out there than we are aware of.”

Canada

“I’ve found some pretty deplorable conditions that people are living in as the cost of sort of maintaining their independence, because they’re afraid that one thing will lead to another,” says Elaine Birchell, an Ottawa-based hoarding intervention specialist.

UK

1 in 200 Brits is a hoarder: someone who can’t stop collecting things – but can’t bear to throw them out. Hoarding is a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. But it’s a condition filled with shame and guilt. In fact, hoarders are so secretive that even their closest friends might not know the truth….

…Dagenham-based 48-year old William is the first man in Britain to receive an ASBO for hoarding.

Japan

K. Ken (Japan)There are many hoarders in Japan too. It looks very difficult to draw a line between healthy hoarding and unhealty one. Especially in our country, the spirit of Mottainai is respected and practiced by many people. So, some boarders are even proud of themselves because they believe they are doing a right thing.

Maki (Japan)
We’re in the same boat in Japan as some people hoard unnecessary things. But not so much television audience has realized it as a syndrome. We see those people curiously rather than out of pity. Regardless of sex, women also hoard things here. Many neighbors are at a loss to the reek as well as the amount. It’s a shame that city officials can intervene to rid of garbage only when their property spills onto a public road.

Russia

Alexander (Russia)
My mother is a great hoarder. She keeps the thousands of unusable things in her flat and doesn’t want to throw away them.

Other:

ewon (North Borneo)
Yes this mental disorder also exists in my country.

Anna (Belarus)
My schoolmate’s mother was saffering from this disease. We tryed to throw away some stuff when she was out, but she always went to the junk to bring everything back and to take something over. It was awfull. There was just narrow path in the room to walk.

Associations related to compulsive hoarding:

(Some national listings in the U.S.):

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