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Is It Clutter or Hoarding?

10 Questions
2 Minutes

Understand the difference between clutter and hoarding.

The tendency to clutter is common, but it is not the same as hoarding. The latter is a mental health disorder; this person feels distressed by their need to acquire and store possessions. Test your knowledge of common cluttering versus hoarding.

1. Living in clutter does not necessarily mean suffering a full-blown mental health disorder.
2. Hoarding is considered a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
3. Clutter is a stepping stone to diagnosable hoarding disorder.
4. A serious hoarder may be living in unsafe conditions.
5. Clutterers cannot discard items easily.
6. Adapting your life to fit your possessions is a sign of hoarding.
7. Cluttering is only found among a certain income or education level.
8. Hoarding is likely an evolutionary byproduct.
9. Adaptive stockpiling is not a mental health disorder.
10. Hoarding is partially genetic.
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Sources

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition

Is Compulsive Hoarding a Genetically and Neurobiologically Discrete Syndrome? Implications for Diagnostic Classification S. Saxena, M.D. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2007.

International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy. Hoarding Rating Scale-Interview: Reliability and Construct Validity in a Nonclinical Sample. P. Faraci, et al.

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