Buried In Treasures:
Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding
Review by Jerome Bubrick, Ph.D., Private Practice, Montclair, NJ
Ok, here’s a riddle: What is better than one new, well-written book on understanding and treating compulsive hoarding? The answer: two new, well-written books on understanding and treating compulsive hoarding! That’s right, in the last issue of the OCF Newsletter, I was honored to review “Compulsive Hoarding and Acquiring” in the “Treatments that Work” series by Gail Steketee, Ph.D. and Randy O. Frost, Ph.D. In this issue, I’m honored to review “Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding” by Drs. David Tolin, Randy Frost, and Gail Steketee. I consider this a “must-read” for anyone with an interest in compulsive hoarding.
“Buried in Treasures” is a grounded, easy to read book written in self-help format and truly is a great addition to the existing literature on compulsive hoarding. It was designed to help a wide variety of people interested in learning about and treating compulsive hoarding. There are scores of useful tips and strategies for those who suffer from hoarding, friends and family members who want to help a loved one, and for treatment professionals who want to learn effective strategies to help treat their own clients with hoarding.
The book starts out by giving the reader a comprehensive description of the essential diagnostic criteria for compulsive hoarding. Other variables including attention, memory, decision making, perfectionism and avoidance are discussed and allow the reader to understand the various factors that contribute to the complexity of hoarding. The reader is then able to complete self assessment ratings for his/her hoarding severity, activities of daily living, living conditions and safety. The reader can score his/her scales and then choose to focus on some or all of the treatment to address the areas of concern.
It has been my experience in treating compulsive hoarding that often clients’ expectations in entering treatment is that house clutter is the main concern, and once the clutter is removed, everyone lives happily ever after. I believe the authors address this expectation quite well and help the reader understand the cognitive behavioral perspective of thinking, feeling, doing, and how that results in clutter and chaos. They present the problem as not just a house problem, but also as a “person problem” which allows for better insight into how clutter is built and maintained. They eloquently point out how non-hoarders value themselves on what they have accomplished, whereas hoarders may value themselves by what they own. I found chapters 4 and 5 especially meaningful and thoughtful. These chapters discuss the various “bad guys” and “good guys” that a hoarder or family may encounter when attempting to overcome the hoarding problem. Topics under the “bad guys” include: readiness for change, fear of making mistakes, beliefs about attachments, overthinking, avoidance, etc. The reader is able to assess which “bad guys” are the most significant to him/her throughout the process. The reader then gets introduced to the “good guys.” Topics include: keeping goals in mind, downward arrow techniques, behavioral experiments, and developing the right skills. The authors later go into depth regarding these techniques to aid the reader in maximizing his/her cleaning efforts.
The following several chapters help the reader understand and improve motivational concerns and teach the reader how to effectively categorize and sort through clutter. The authors do a great job of addressing commonly asked questions regarding what to keep and for how long. They differentiate between what to keep for 1 year, 6 years and even forever. Unfortunately (for most readers), the “keep indefinitely” category only contains four items.
The issue of how to effectively reduce the acquisition of new possessions is also addressed effectively. The authors do a wonderful job of giving specific guidelines and rules for acquiring new possessions. There is a handy cut-out reminder tool on page 137 that reminds the reader of all the information presented in the chapter. Listed are the essential guidelines and reminders including: do you really “need” this, do you have money to pay for it, do you have room for it, will you regret acquiring this in a week, etc.
In fact, these suggestions certainly apply to non-hoarders as well. Don’t tell anyone, but my cut-out is now in my wife’s pocketbook and hopefully she will find it prior to buying some new shoes!!!
Posted: November 6, 2007.