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The topic of compulsive hoarding has come more into the consciousness of people because of a number of television documentaries on the topic, as well as a new reality TV show on A&E network devoted to showing the lives of hoarders as they interact with therapists and clean-up crews.

For some viewers this topic may be pure entertainment, and some people unfortunately even view the hoarders depicted as if they were exhibits at a freak show instead of human beings with feelings. Others may view it because they wonder if a messy friend or family member is actually a hoarder. And some of us view these things with concern that we ourselves are hoarders, or that we are on the road to becoming hoarders.

Compulsive hoarding is not officially defined as a disorder in the DSM of the American Psychiatric Association. While it is most commonly found in people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder, it can also be found in people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other disorders as well.

The concept of compulsive hoarding as a pathological condition can be a problem when persons with a messy house or a habit of collecting certain things are presumed guilty of having a compulsive hoarding problem. The lay person- even one who has watched a television program about hoarding- is not qualified to make a diagnosis. Some people, as an example, are compulsive book hoarders- they may own not only large numbers of books they don't read, but often with many copies of the same edition of the same book. But other people are simply book lovers who amass books because they want to read them. A person who is not a book lover and who does not read at all for entertainment may look at a book lover's crowded shelves and believe that it must be compulsive hoarding.

There are some signs to tell if what you or another person are experiencing is actual compulsive hoarding or just bad housekeeping habits.

1. buying, and failing to throw away, large numbers of possessions which seem to have limited value, or no value at all.

2. living spaces become so cluttered that one cannot use them for their intended purpose- for example, the kitchen is too cluttered to cook in, or the bed too full of clutter to sleep there.

3. the clutter and chaos cause a person a significant amount of distress, or impairment in daily living.

4. reluctance or inability to return borrowed items, in some cases leading to actual stealing of items to add to the hoard.

Some hoarders know that many

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