Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

OK, I admit I was a big reluctant to start this book but couldn't stop listening once I started. The authors go through case studies of many adults and some children with various problems with hoarding and accumulation. The authors discuss the individual struggles, family struggles and public health issues with hoarding. They talk about how they got into the area of treating this disorder which had previously not been discussed much. They do talk primarily about how the disease arises from psychological factors, as opposed to neurotransmitters (for example), but do talk some about the biology and genetic factors around hoarding. This is not a "how-to" book with chapter by chapter approach to the illness but they also give advice on how they treat people with these issues and how to approach the issue on a community basis. They also give families and individuals advice on where to go for help. The main thing that fascinated me was how they could so eloquently describe the struggles that these people have with discarding their things which I never could have understood from watching a show like "Hoarders", for example. If you are at all interested in this topic, don't hesitate to get this book

Frost offers a comprehensive, insightful view into the world of hoarders...the varieties of hoarding, the theories on why they hoard (nature vs. nurture), the torment they often face, and how we might best help them face and manage this extremely difficult mental illness. As a professional in architecture who occasionally works with hoarders, I found this book to be valuable in helping me understand what my clients face.. Frost's narration of his own work is engaging and enjoyable to listen to....more narrative than academic.

This was one of the best books I've read about people who can't get rid of things easily. Even though this is about hoarders, which I am not, I was able to glean a lot of insight from the psychological portraits in the case studies.

It provided possible explanations about why I have difficulty in getting rid of the most mundane things and offers information as to why others are real hoarders. Also, I found interesting the scientist authors' portrayal of hoarders being perfectionists gone awry, lack of focus, creativity to a fault, seeing 'objects' differently than others might. There is nothing positive about hanging on to too much stuff if it becomes a noose around your neck... for me, it's a work in progress!

No, I don't live in a house where goat-paths thread among stacks of newspapers, magazines, and assorted junk. But even as I listened to Caron's excellent reading of this well-written book, I couldn't help but notice how many of the traits of the sufferers of extreme cases of hoarding I had, or could recognize in friends and family members - though never so out-of-control. The authors never overclaim - they are genuine scientists who remain cautious and skeptical of their own tentative conclusions. The result is a book that is both fascinating and reliable. It's a happy coincidence when first rate science is done by first rate writers.

I am a 74 year old hoarder, have watched the TV show and read a lot of books about hoarding, but THIS book is the first book that has really explored what is going on inside the heads of hoarders. It is not a "fix it" or a "quick solution" book, but rather it is an in depth study of how we are wired differently from other people. I highly recommend this book above all others for hoarders and anyone who wants to understand them. I am optimistic that understanding how my brain works will help me make my house more functional so that I can enjoy the pleasures that I had hoped I would have in it when I bought it.

I had a hard time understanding what was going on in their head, and this helped me talking with them in their language.
However, Since I'm working in the psychiatric field, I wish they could write more about what kind of medicine could reduce the anxiety when hoarder has to through away stuff etc...

Very insightful and thought provoking. It has reallly helped me understand the hoarder in my life!

I can recommend this book to anyone who is interested in psychology-themed discussions. I found the academic style and presentation reassuring that the information was as reliable and vetted as well as possible at the time of writing. In contrast to some other reviewers, I did not personally find the academic nature of the discussion to be boring or dry. Some of the descriptions of hoarders is gave me an almost voyeuristic thrill and made my messy desk seem completely normal in contrast. I am not sure this was the intent of the author, but I would suspect that other non-hoarders might well have this response. The final segment of the book contained a discussion of modern American culture, and I found this part of the book to be preachy, irrelevant to the overall content, and speculative in a non-academic way. Other than that one weakness, I can recommend this book as an interesting read. The narration is fine but not spectacular. If you are not interested in the content, the narration will not carry this book for you.

I found the authors lucid and caring. The book taught me a few things and gave some highly illuminating examples. Recommend.

I have been fascinated by hoarding since 1994, when I read about a couple – somewhere in Orange County, I think – dying in the January 17, 1994 Northridge Earthquake, after being squished by their belongings. One of the neighbors mentioned sometimes seeing the husband, sitting in a car stuffed with junk, reading his morning paper. The article didn’t call them “hoarders” – that term wasn’t used at the time - but that is what they were.

I have always wondered what caused people to keep so much that it could kill them. From time to time, I’ve watched A&E’s “Hoarders”, which started in 2006. Watching “Hoarders” is like slowing down as you pass a car wreck – you look, take a deep breath, try not to think too much about what you see, and are very grateful it’s not you. The distress of the hoarders that ‘volunteer’ for help is real, but that show doesn’t explain where the compulsion comes from.

Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee’s 2010 “Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things” explains the why, and the why isn’t always the same. For some people, hoarding happens because they ‘store’ their memories in objects, and are afraid that if they throw those objects away, they will not keep those memories. For other people, hoarding happens because they are so afraid that they are being wasteful by throwing objects away. There are many other reasons, some of them neurological. Hoarding runs in families, and Frost and Steketee present a fascinating study of twin hoarders. There are animal hoarders, object hoarders, people who can’t pass up anything that’s free, and hoarders who start (and sometimes stop) hoarding when they are children.

The frustration the family members and friends on “Hoarders” is evident as they struggle to convince people to throw away what is to non-hoarders, junk. Frost and Steketee explain that to a hoarder, most people’s junk can be a hoarder’s dearest treasure. In many cases, taking a hoarder’s possessions can be psychologically devastating, even leading to suicide. Helping a hoarder isn’t for amateurs.

Frost and Steketee address the issue of whether hoarding is also Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and conclude that it is not. They are correct: the 2013 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) V will list “Hoarding Disorder” as a separate diagnosis.

This isn’t a “How To” on how not to recover from hoarding – Frost and Steketee provide self help for hoarders in a different (non-Audible) book, “Hoarding and Acquiring”. “Stuff” is a book for people who want to understand this fascinating disorder.

Joe Caron’s narration is lively and engaging, and the book was worth my drive time.