Charles E. Hill
Pamolu Oldham
English 101
3 February 2015

Summary, Buried in Treasures (Hoarders)

The article Buried in Treasures: there’s more to hoarding than OCD covers four main areas concerning the condition known/labeled as hoarding: the television portrayal of hoarding, life experiences causing hoarding, the psychology of a hoarder and the harmful effects of hoarding. The television portrayal of hoarding is quite cruel. At times these people are made fun of and treated as second class, dirty unintelligent people. Family members and “intervention experts” often descend on the household/hoarding area and force the “Hoarder” to discard items. The vast majority of items the hoarder has placed a value on, whether it is monetary or sentimental. The author argues more psychological damage is being caused during these types of intrusive interventions. Throughout this article, authors Paul Salkovskis and Sinead Lambe discuss the psychological reasons why someone may fall into a hoarding lifestyle. Several points are made as to why someone may hoard. The first and probably the most common reason; the person has simply acquired more stuff faster than he or she has consumed or has needed to replace said items. A second reason may be the hoarder simply experienced a total loss of their belongings in life and feels compelled to hold on to things as long as possible. Salkovskis and Lambe use refugees as an example in this instance. Another reason could be an early childhood traumatic experience, such as parents discarding treasured childhood toys or possessions. As a result, triggering the need to place sentimental value on their possessions as adults and refuse to discard things out of fear of hurting someone’s feelings. Later in the Article, it is pointed out that in