They even keep the candy wrappers they received when they were four years old, but also old, ragged clothes they never wear, the flyers they deliver on the street, broken vases and vinyl records they have nowhere to listen to. It seems that the slogan of compulsive accumulators is simply surrounded by useless objects, so they do not develop criteria of what to store and what not to save.
The issue would be an anecdote if it were not serious, because this relentless exercise of saving everything can lead to serious social and health problems, and it is a clear symptom that something is wrong.
- The figure of compulsive accumulators in the world is not neglected.
- It is estimated that at least 4% of the total population has symptoms of the disease.
- Equivalent to about 300 million people worldwide.
- Why do some people pile up their surroundings with insignificant objects to the point of impoverishing their quality of life and endangering their health?.
In fact, there is no complete agreement among experts on the factors that trigger compulsive accumulation, what is a consensus is that it is a symptom that deserves attention and possibly a long period of psychotherapy.
For Freud, excessive accumulation corresponds to the manifestation of a retaining character, this type of character is structured in the first years of life, in the control phase of the sphincter.
The child establishes some control over his parents, the way he visits the bathroom. In your childish mind, faeces are a gift she gives or rejects, depending on the bond she has established with her parents.
Retention is a characteristic that can be attributed to personality at this stage, in one way or another, expresses an aggressive impulse against its parents that is repressed, but soon manifests itself as accumulation or greed.
Other approaches indicate that compulsive accumulation is defensive behavior in the face of imaginary threats. The accumulator is part of the idea that an object should not be taken because it may be missing later.
No one understands how anyone can overlook a piece of broken and unimportant paper, but the accumulator thinks “you never know. “In fact, you feel a strong sense of insecurity in the face of change.
There is also the case for those who accumulate in response to trauma, perhaps that person has gone through a situation in which he has nothing left and is afraid that it will happen again.
In addition, there are those who keep the memories as a kind of proof, since he is accused of unconscious guilt and wants to testify on his behalf, in this case the accumulation functions as an unconscious need to gather evidence.
The compulsive accumulator is usually also a compulsive buyer. You don’t see anything in the offer because, right away, you feel like you have to buy it, just because it’s cheaper, no matter if it’s something you need or not.
It’s also common for them to be single people. In part, his obsession with accumulating is also due to a certain fantasy of replacing the company with objects.
People who have difficulty getting rid of objects they don’t need experience this expropriation as a real loss even suffer real pain if they need to separate the the things that make up their world.
The situation can reach serious levels, such as the well-known case of the Collyer brothers, which occurred in the United States in 1947, where neighbors warned police that they had not seen the brothers leave their homes or show signs of life for a long time The authorities were unable to enter the house through the door or windows due to the large number of objects that prevented access.
In the end, they could only open one entrance on the terrace, there were so many objects everywhere that it took 6 hours to find the first corpse, the second was not found until 18 days later, when it was a few meters from the first.
One of the brothers had died from the collapse of thousands of books and newspapers that had fallen on him; the other brother, who was blind and paralyzed, later died of hunger and thirst, not being able to go to get food or water.
In less severe cases, compulsive accumulation leads to a monumental disorder at home or in the office, which sometimes facilitates the development of parasites because it is not possible to clean the house properly.
There is no specific method for dealing with compulsive accumulators, but it is true that these are people who need professional help to clarify what is behind this desire not to separate from the old man.