Dr. Suzanne Chabaud (L) and Elizabeth Nelson (R) at the recent Institute for Challenging Disorganization Conference. (Denver, Colorado, September 2013)
[important]Update (Feb 14, 2014): This post has been adapted into an article in the book, “The ICD Guide to Collaborating with Professional Organizers for Related Professionals.” For more information, please visit our post, COH Inc. Contributes to New Book.[/important]
Dr. Suzanne Chabaud recently extended an invitation to Children of Hoarders, Inc., to participate in her presentation at the Institute for Challenging Disorganization‘s 2013 Conference in Denver. It was my pleasure to represent COH at this conference—I met a truly fabulous group of dedicated professional organizers who specialize in working with hoarders. Leaders of this year’s conference were warm and welcoming in a way that was truly overwhelming!
For anyone who doesn’t already know: Dr. Chabaud has collected a great deal of data from hundreds of adult children of hoarders via online survey, individual conversations, and group discussions. She is the first mental health professional to devote so much time and attention to understanding the plight of children of hoarders, specifically. Her groundbreaking work reveals what we COH have known for years: the experience of growing up in a hoarded home has a profound and lasting negative impact on those of us who survived it.
Dr. Chabaud’s presentation (“From Inside-Out: The Culture of Families Dominated by Hoarding Disorder“) was met with keen interest and enthusiasm. Institute for Challenging Disorder (ICD) members are sincerely committed to learning more about the emotional issues of hoarding: how the disorder hurts families and relationships. Dr. Chabaud was kind enough to include me in the Q & A portion of her presentation. I was impressed by how well this group understood the behaviors and habits of our parents, most particularly how poor insight, excuses and denial get in the way of an accurate “picture” of the problem.
Conference leaders were generous in offering me an extra block of time (not on the formal schedule) for my own Q&A with the group. The ICD members asked insightful questions; in their work, they see how hoarding impacts families and they want to help. Some questions were easy—What advice do you have for adult COH still living in the hoard? (A: Get OUT)—but some were difficult, e.g. What kind of support is available to young children in a hoarded home, when the parents are not interested in facilitating therapy? (A: Probably not much. School counselors need education, the impact on COH is still not well understood) or How do you feel about reporting to CPS, removing children from hoarded homes? (A: Every situation is different. Some COH wish they had been removed and some of us would have been helped by less drastic intervention.)
Many COH probably feel that their parent will never seek the help of a mental health professional. I feel that way. I have often wondered how any researcher will ever learn about or understand the challenge of dealing with a hoarder like my parent: someone in complete denial. If some hoarders never seek or accept help, how will any expert ever have the opportunity to know about them? The ICD conference reminded me (again): many organizers are truly on the front lines in dealing with this disorder. They “get” it. People like my hoarder parent—someone who will never admit to having a mental disorder or accept mental health treatment for a disorder—do work with professional organizers. Many hoarders use the services of professional organizers and sometimes these services happen in the absence of formal mental health treatment.
I want to thank Dr. Chabaud for conducting the amazing research that now educates people at conferences like this one. I felt so lucky for the chance to join her at this conference! I want to especially thank all of the ICD members and leadership who welcomed me. As a COH, I’m grateful for the ICD professionals who have such keen insights into hoarding disorder and share our interest in finding practical strategies and solutions for dealing with it. I look forward to future opportunities to spend time with this great group of people!
—Elizabeth Nelson, for Children of Hoarders, Inc.
