Reframing the Stigma Around Uncontrolled Clutter: A Strength-based Approach
/
Danny Torrance (C’15) (in green on left) at a meeting of the Philadelphia Hoarding Task Force
Danny Torrance wants to clear up some misconceptions you may have about people who suffer from hoarding disorder.
Despite the impressions promoted by reality TV shows and urban legends, Danny finds that the majority of those with hoarding disorder are neither lazy nor dirty. He finds that people who hoard are, well, people -- people with strengths, just like you and me.
“There are so many good things about people who hoard,” observes Danny with sincere appreciation.
Danny came to his interest in hoarding disorder around the time that he earned his MAPP degree in 2015, while serving as a case manager in Philadelphia. He knew there were health and safety risks associated with hoarding, but he had no idea how to provide assistance. That led him to join the Philadelphia Hoarding Task Force, “just to learn. My initial intention was to figure out how to help one or two clients.”
He became fascinated with the topic. Moreover, he felt empathy and compassion for his clients; looking back on his own life, he realized that his grandfather showed signs of some hoarding tendencies. Based on his interest and growing expertise, Danny’s workplace created a separate caseload of hoarding clients for Danny to manage.
According to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, people with hoarding disorder have persistent difficulty parting with things that come into their possession. The value of those items may not be apparent to others. The accumulation clutters living areas, causing significant distress and difficulty functioning, not to mention safety issues.
The Harm Reduction Model Invites a Positive Psychology Approach
As a member of Philadelphia’s Task Force, Danny received training from a representative of the Metro Housing/Boston partnership, who introduced him to Boston’s innovative “harm reduction” case management strategy. In the Boston model, the case manager conducts weekly at-home visits with the client to teach strategies for sorting and discarding, giving clients tools to help themselves with the goal of minimizing health and fire hazards. The Boston approach succeeded in stopping 98 percent of evictions at an average cost of $1,500. Compare that with a $10,000+ price tag associated with a forced purge by a cleanout company, in which traumatized hoarders usually re-clutter their space within six months, with greater severity and exacerbated mental health issues. “The harm reduction approach,” notes Danny, “is good for mental health, city budgets, and long-term change.”
With his MAPP degree in hand, Danny observed that the Boston intervention appeared to be based on the science of positive psychology, without making those connections explicitly in its approach. He recognized references to thinking traps, resilience skills, increasing motivation, self-efficacy, and self-determination theory, as well as the importance of relationships, trust-building, and coaching.
Danny acknowledges that hoarding behaviors are rarely cured. “A more realistic approach is to teach clients how to build self-regulation to manage their impulse to acquire, and their reluctance to discard.” Danny has enhanced the harm-reduction model with his recognition that people with hoarding disorder can be interpreted as over-using their character strengths, as defined by the VIA Institute on Character. For example:
Over-use of Creativity can prompt them to envision a potential purpose for everything they acquire.
An excess of Zest can result in the “thrill of the hunt” in search of the “perfect” item. One of Danny’s clients lived next to a thrift store that allowed him to practice Zest all the time; “He was in a constant state of flow,” notes Danny.
Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence in over-abundance can lead to finding and keeping a bottle cap, say, that features a beautiful shade of blue, even though from an outsider’s view, it has no purpose or value.
Danny quotes Yourgrau (2015), who says, “Hoarders possess a heightened sensitivity and imagination about objects that most of us don’t. They are, in this way, like artists. While this is true, hoarders lack one capacity essential to an artist who makes art—the capacity to cut. To edit.” Danny says that reframing the stigma around hoarding by recognizing and appreciating the strengths of those with hoarding disorder provides clues about how to work with clients to use their strengths in moderation to manage their behavior.
Character Strengths as the Basis for Hoarding Disorder Interventions
The strategies Danny employs recognize clients as individuals who came to their hoarding behaviors via different routes, with different motivations and with a unique set of signature strengths. Through a hands-off approach (“the clients are the only ones who touch their stuff”), Danny coaches them by asking lots of questions. In this way, he has developed a toolbox of approaches to find what resonates with each client. Among the interventions he has used successfully:
Imagining Your Best Possible Future Self: Danny asks the client to imagine a day six months in the future. “What would you be able to do if your living room were in an ideal state?” The answers – for example, to sit on the couch and watch a movie, invite others over for a meal, open a window -- allow clients to envision the possibilities and set goals “that are inherently about well-being and building relationships,” says Danny.
Setting Implementation Intentions: Many clients feel a strong emotional pull to their objects. Danny tries to be the counter-voice to help them disengage the emotion from the objects. He tells of a client who wanted to wait until she felt just the right positive emotions to uplift her before she started sorting and discarding – a time, of course, that never arrived. Developing concrete “if/then, when/then” plans (such as “Even if I don’t feel highly motivated, I will sort for 10 minutes and then stop”), enabled her to circumvent her emotional state in favor of actionable steps and to develop a sense of accomplishment toward her goal.
Curating the Collection: Danny describes a client who was unable to part with any of his beloved mother’s possessions when she died. Danny helped him decide how to keep the best of what he had by encouraging him to “curate the collection,” keeping only those items he cared most about. This approach can be helpful because many people with hoarding behaviors feel shame and embarrassment about their inability to organize and discard. “Recognizing the worth of items that give them comfort, joy, and excitement helps clients to affirm their own worth and gives them motivation,” says Danny.
One of Danny’s clients used her strength of Social Intelligence to develop and lead a peer support group to help others with hoarding behaviors. In the process, she went from being embarrassed about her own hoarding tendencies to finding meaning in helping others with similar problems. (She did have to use her character strength of Humor, though, when she showed up late to her first meeting, admitting that she’d gotten distracted by shopping at a thrift store she had passed on the way!)
Danny is excited about contributing to the relatively new science of hoarding disorder treatment by applying positive psychology. While he no longer works as a case manager, last year he formed “DLT Decluttering, LLC” so that he can continue to work one-on-one with clients and further develop his distinctive approach of offering “resources, self-efficacy, and strengths-based strategies” to enable clients “to be safe and happy, and to pursue well-being.”
You, Too, Can Use Character Strengths to Pare Down
Danny points out that hoarding behaviors fall at the extreme end of a spectrum that we all reside on to one extent or another. “Most of us have a desire to acquire and keep things that have meaning,” he says, whether the allure is intrinsic value, sentimental associations, potential usefulness, aesthetic appeal, or some other measure of worth.
So, then, can strengths-based approaches be applied when dealing with run-of-the mill, everyday clutter? Danny says absolutely yes, and offers some strategies:
A good place to start is by tapping into your strength of Curiosity to ask how much you really need the things that surround you. “Look at your possessions and ask yourself: Has it been at least six months since I’ve use this? If I didn’t have this, is there something else I could use instead?” If the answer is yes, take the item, place it in a bag and store it in a closet or give it to a friend for 30 days. At the end of that month, ask yourself if you miss it or need it. If not, it’s a sign that you can get rid of the item and still be OK. “Experiment, have fun, test yourself,” says Danny.
Use your strengths of Judgment and Honesty to give yourself a framework from which to evaluate incoming items. “You’d be surprised at how much we passively acquire and keep,” Danny says. For him, it’s pens. “When I get new pens, I never replace the old pens.” When you acquire something new, ask yourself, “How many of this item do I actually need? How much is enough? Can I discard or donate or give away the old item?”
Practice your strength of Perseverance to stick with your decluttering activity, which is not likely to be a “one-and-done” effort. Paring down can be time-consuming, especially if you have emotional attachments to your stuff. Danny’s work with clients typically lasts from six months to a year.
This last tip is from me: volunteer to write an article about strengths-based approaches to hoarding disorder. The effort has encouraged me to embark on a house-wide decluttering activity that, even in its early stages, has been greatly satisfying!
