Help for Hoarders. Is this Law of Attraction Run Amuck?

Is someone you know hoarding? Help for hoarders

After a comment someone made about there is no help for hoarders, it’s law of attraction gone wild!, I felt it was time to stick up for these struggling people and write this article. Hoarding is not about the law of attraction, or even the manifesting process (1), as much as it is about mental illness and personality disorder. Irrational thinking, including magical thinking, play a part in this complex OCD syndrome. It is easy for any of us to fall into the trap of negative thinking or ridicule about people struggling with hoarding tendencies. Better to focus on what can help.

Was She Hoarding? Many years ago I was doing a home visit to a new patient, who needed assessment for her ability to cope on her own. She was elderly and had been referred by a concerned neighbour in her run down apartment building in the center of the city. It is typical that when the nurse is coming, especially for the first time, people spruce up the place a bit. However, when I entered her musty apartment, I was met with ceiling high piles of newspapers, months of unwashed dishes, and every type of collectible piled up, that you could imagine. Was this woman hoarding? Was she attracting too much stuff into her life by some law of attraction strategy? Oh please! No, this woman was struggling with serious physical illness, barely able to walk, alone in the world, and unable to cope with her situation. True, there were signs of hoarding, yet if she would have had a bit of help in the previous few years, she may not have been in this dire state. We must be careful to try to understand the whole person, mind, body and soul, in order to provide help for hoarders, when that is actually the case.

But Don’t We Attract Everything to Us? Some profess that the manifesting process is exactly that, and that the law of attraction is the only law at work in the universe. I beg to differ. I.e,: the woman above did not imagine, hope and dream about having piles of newspapers, dirty dishes and junk surrounding her in her old age. No, some of what befalls us is the result of many events, natural occurrences, and the myriad of circumstances influencing our choices and health every day. The person who is truly a hoarder needs help, not ridicule.

Professional Help for Hoarders : Take The Test. The International OCD Foundation has a Test for Hoarders on their website (2), which is a great place to start. They define Hoarding as: “excessive acquisition, difficulty discarding, and clutter”(2). Included in their Test are images to help gain a realistic perspective on the status of our home, or Clutter Image Rating. The important choice to make, should you be going down this road, is to gain a healthy perspective by getting the help you need. In fact, many people who are clinically diagnosed with the OCD of Hoarding (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) are referred to the site listed here, or provided with help which follows the guidelines there.

But I just Need Help Organizing! This may be true. Many of us, for example, are running busy household with kids, pets and too many To-Do's, operating businesses out of one or two small rooms in our home. Or… working out of cubicles. For us, we just need to apply our Energy, Attention and Focus to attracting more of what we do want in our surroundings. One of the strategies I use, is my August Purge. Every August, major shredding, re-cycling, donating and re-organizing happens in my offices. It feels great! What does that good feeling generate? More organizing, and a sense of well-being, which has many positive spin offs. Offices and homes do get messy with super busy lives and growing businesses, and it is important to take it easy on ourselves, and get a handle on things at least once a week. Also: follow what I call the Get One. Flick One! strategy. If I buy a tshirt, I give away a tshirt.

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(2) See The International OCD Foundation for professional Help for Hoarders. Click Here Basics.

Also see Womens law of attraction Stress Solutions .

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