http://mindhacks.com/2008/03/10/possessed/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Mon, 20 May 2013 15:51:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2008/03/10/possessed/#comment-6809 Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:11:17 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/possessed/#comment-6809 Fascinating, but far from the worst I’ve seen in real life! I happened to live with two people who were more extreme. Interesting enough, their hoarding stemmed from different angles, but the result was almost the same.
One guy would basically buy stuff without any regard to where it would fit. Or without much thought for an actual need for items. Books, electronics, you name it. It didn’t help that he had high income. He did not have a mental stopper in giving stuff up. He did cull his stuff when he moved, basically because he had to go through it anyway.
A gal I lived with did not buy much, but practically did not throw stuff away. Everything was of emotional value to her! Or she’d find some remotely plausible reason for keeping it. Old hardware, books, even telephone books. She was also compulsive about organizing stuff, like alphabetizing her library. Because she could not throw much away, she ended up with way more stuff than the dude above. She also got depressed. Taking an SSRI actually helped her get rid of some of the stuff, especially the more useless things like telephone books, even though she never admitted any correlation.
Finally, when I had an episode of depression I ended up with a pile of various things in the middle of my room. Books, CDs, clothing were all mixed together. It lasted for some weeks. Needless to say it all got cleared in an hour after I got well.

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2008/03/10/possessed/#comment-6808 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:02:56 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/possessed/#comment-6808 Hi
I am the director of this film and am now researching the next stage of the project. I am trying to compile a collection of peoples experiences of OCD and other anxiety based disorders. I have found from experience that although symptoms might be similar, the actual particularities of the obsessions and compulsions are often very varied. For example, one might wash ones hands 30 times a day, but have a very unique self discovered reason for doing so. I would be very grateful to hear of your or any friend/acquaintances experiences/difficulties. Many thanks and I hope you find the film interesting. Please email me at martin@martinhampton.com
Martin Hampton

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