Hoarding: Designated Discrete Disorder in New Psychiatry 'Bible' STEPHANIE SY: Thanks to several reality series on hoarding, many of us are now aware of this debilitating condition. Yet even with all the attention hoarding has received, it's still poorly understood and difficult to treat. Mental health experts hope that will now change with hoardings new diagnosis as a separate disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's updated diagnostic Bible of codes, the DSM. Dr. Scott Hannan is a psychologist at the Anxiety Disorder Center at Hartford Hospital's Institute for Living in Connecticut. He is also a featured expert on the A&E show Hoarders and works both in front of the camera and behind the scenes to help those with hoarding disorder get their lives back. Until recently, hoarding was considered very rare, but Dr. Hannan says that's no longer true. - Right now the numbers we're looking at probably about 5%, which is greater than we initially had believed. - With its new status as an official disorder, Hannan and his colleagues hope that hoarding will draw more research to the growing numbers of sufferers emerging from the shadows. - In terms of research, we've always tended to look at it as a product of OCD, but we've really learned is that the problem with hoarding is very separate from OCD. - Clinicians also hope for the research will ultimately lead them to the cause of hoarding, which is still inconclusive. - Part of it may be a biological component, where people may be genetically predisposed to develop hoarding. In other instances, it may be related to a trauma. We can see that with some individuals they may have an early onset in the late teens, but for people who've had a traumatic experience, that onset maybe later in life. And you can see at times when people start collecting things to fill some type of personal void. STEPHANIE SY: Dr. Blaise Worden, who also treats hoarding at the anxiety disorder center says she sees young people exhibiting early hoarding behaviors. - What we normally find is that people who are compulsive hoarders, the behavior begins in childhood. So with most of our people that come into treatment are in their 40s, 50s or later. The reason that we think that we're not seeing it until later on in life is because it takes so long to accumulate so much stuff that it's a problem. STEPHANIE SY: Equally elusive is a cure for hoarding. While it appears to resolve quickly in reality television, off screen treatment for hoarding is lengthy, arduous, and ongoing. - We have them usually start with things that are relatively more easy for them, whether it's junk mail, trash items. - And that means if the person's bringing things in through the mail, we've got to cut those things off. And if they're going to tag sales, they've got to rearrange their life so they're not going to tag sales every weekend. - We usually try to educate them that it's going to be a long process, and if they try to clean it out abruptly, it'll usually get back to the state it was pretty soon. So we usually try to take it gradually, and have them make all their own choices so that they can essentially be their own therapist in the end and keep up these skills. - And if you want to help someone who has a problem with hoarding, the Anxiety Disorder Center website offers more information and resources. With Everyday Health, I'm Stephanie Sy.