What is the difference between “normal” collecting, hobbies, and Compulsive Hoarding?
As with any mental illness, it is important to be able to discern between “normal” but unusual behaviours and extreme behaviours or illness. No-one is saying that someone with a collection of stamps or baseball cards is suffering with Compulsive Hoarding Syndrome and in fact there are very clear distinctions between normal collecting behaviour and harmful Hoarding behaviour. With this in mind, Dr Randy Frost of the University of Kansas has set out a three point guideline to telling the difference between normal and harmful collecting behaviour. The points are roughly as follows: 1. Compulsive Hoarders obsessively acquire and neglect to discard possessions that are apparently useless or hold very limited value. The desire to acquire these objects is obsessive and overwhelming and the anxiety about discarding them is tremenous. Rationalisations for this behaviour will include logic such as “I will need this later on”. As opposed to a collector’s logic which might be “I like this and woul
