Re: Unique Disease Growing in USA

From: "Arisudan Deva"
To: am-global@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Unique Disease Growing in USA
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:39:01 +0000

Baba

== RE: UNIQUE DISEASE GROWING IN USA ==

Namaskar,
Here below are two key articles related with this important topic of "hoarding" - which as described in the earlier letter is basically a psychic disease related with materialism.

If people goad their mind toward Parama Purusa they will not senselessly chase after and collect material products. Thus inculcation of a spiritual ideal will eliminate hoarding.

We should also keep in mind that hoarding is not exclusively the disease of the wealthy or the poor; it is the disease of the materialist. Anyone who tries to find psychic satisfaction in the physical sphere by gross accumulation of particular objects is a hoarder - regardless of their financial state or the condition of their house.

Once again, the cure is to introduce people to Baba's teachings on santosa and aparigraha and ultimately introduce them to the path of sadhana.

Please do write in with your thoughts after reading the below articles.

Namsakar,
Arisudan

The danger of hoarding
By Joyce Cohen

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-02-18-hoarding-usat_x.htm

For 25 years, a difficult-neighbor problem plagued Curtis and Elaine Colvin of Seattle. The neighbor's home and lawn resembled a junkyard.

Finally, last spring, the elderly man was taken out of state by relatives. Konstantinos Apostolou bought the house — and sent in five men to clear the floor-to-ceiling junk.

"It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life," says his son, George Apostolou.

There was nowhere to walk, except for a narrow "goat path" connecting the rooms. The men hauled out seven Dumpsters' worth of clothes, books, magazines, cabinets of unopened packaged food [which he could never eat], firewood, car parts, tires, bank statements and 50-year-old tax records.
    
"I feel bad for the guy," says Apostolou. "I'm sure he was ill."

Just how ill is still little understood. The man was a classic hoarder — a condition usually considered freakish and laughable, or dismissed with cutesy terms like "pack rat" and "junkaholic." Only now is hoarding garnering serious attention.

Within the past six years, about 10 municipalities have formed task forces so that public services can collaborate in cleaning up the property and helping the hoarder. And researchers are studying how hoarding differs from seemingly related conditions. Hoarding is currently considered one of the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Hoarders don't just save stuff, but constantly acquire new stuff — to such a remarkable degree that it interferes with functioning and safety.

It's unclear how widespread hoarding is, since the problem often surfaces only after a neighbor's complaint or a medical emergency. Randy Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., estimates that 2% to 3% of the population has OCD, and up to a third of those exhibit hoarding behavior.

Real danger can lurk in homes overflowing with stuff. Floors buckle from the weight. People get buried under piles. Insects and rodents feast on rotting food. Combustibles ignite, endangering both occupants and firefighters.

Fairfax County, Va., formed one of the first task forces in 1998 after squatters settled in a house vacated by a hoarder, lit a fire in the fireplace and died in the ensuing blaze.

Behavioral peculiarities among hoarders come as no surprise to researchers...

In Pittsfield, Mass., fire chief Stephen Duffy tells of one elderly widow whose house had "debris piled higher than the bed, with one spot where she curled up on the mattress to sleep."

Hoarding behavior

http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/squalor/hoarding.shtml

Randy Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., estimates that 2% to 3% of the population has OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), and up to a third of those exhibit hoarding behavior (Cohen, 2004).
3-part definition of clinical hoarding :

1. The acquisition of, and failure to discard, a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value (Frost and Gross, 1993).
2. Living spaces are cluttered enough that they can't be used for the activities for which they were designed (Frost and Hartl, 1996).
3. Significant distress or impairment in functioning caused by the hoarding.

Hoarding has [these] components:

1. Acquiring possessions compulsively - compulsive buying, or collecting free things.
2. Saving all these possessions and never discarding...

People who hoard keep things for the same reasons as anyone else:

• For sentimental value - emotional attachment or to remember an important life event.
• For utility value - the item is, or could be, useful.
• For aesthetic value - the item is considered to be attractive or beautiful.

Frost and Gross's 1993 study of hoarders found that the most likely justification for keeping an item was future need ("I might need this someday"), followed by lack of wear or damage ("This is too good to throw away"), sentimental saving ("This means too much to me to throw away"), and lastly potential value ("This may be worth something someday"). The difference between people who hoard and people who don't, is that hoarders apply these values to a far larger number of items.
A hoarder will also be very concerned about maintaining control over their possessions. Well-meaning family members who try to help by sorting and purging the clutter on the hoarder's behalf are likely to find their good deed has an unanticipated result: an increased effort on the part of the hoarder to protect their stuff from "unauthorized touching". (Frost, Hartl, Christian and Williams, 1995)
If you hoard, you probably have problems organizing and maintaining all your possessions. First of all, there are so many of them! A hoarder can have problems categorizing - necessary for organizing - seeing each item as unique. The result is chaos and clutter that causes stress and isolation.
Part of the problem for hoarders is that they find it hard to make decisions about what to do with their possessions - e.g. whether to keep something or throw it away. A hoarder may feel that something bad will happen if they discard an item or it may feel like a part of their identity will be lost. If a hoarder has a past experience of throwing something out and regretting it later, this is likely to increase their distress (Warren, Ostrom, and Rosenfeld, 1988).
To avoid these uncomfortable feelings, or distress, a hoarder is likely to choose the "safe" option - postponing the decision, or saving everything (Frost and Gross, 1993). However, by never discarding, the doom and gloom theories are never disproved. Some hoarders find recycling to be less difficult than discarding.
Hoarding is a public health and safety risk. Hoarding increases the risk of fire because piles of newspapers, magazines, and clothing provide a plentiful supply of combustible material. At the same time, the piles make it more difficult to escape from a fire by blocking possible exits, as well as making it harder for rescue workers to reach you.
Hoarding also increases the risk of structural damage to the building, a consequence of the sheer weight of the hoarded items.