Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in “How We Care,” a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring original reporting and perspectives on how we care for one another at all stages of life. Spotlight PA Cindy’s home has so much stuff that she can’t use certain areas. Boxes form an archipelago through her living and dining rooms.
Papers blanket a large wooden table. Near a collection of scented candles, there’s a half-used roll of gingham-patterned contact paper. Cindy has three more unopened rolls in her office, which is so packed with craft supplies she’s unable to walk across the room.
“I know that it would be good for someone,” Cindy said as she unspooled some of the shiny blue and white paper. Like many people with hoarding disorder, Cindy tends to buy impulsively, but also struggles to throw things away because she dislikes being wasteful. Spotlight PA is using only Cindy’s first name because of the stigma that surrounds hoarding disorder.
People who spoke to Spotlight PA for this story said they are sometimes viewed as lazy, dirty, or strange. Matt Williams, founder of Fight the Blight , said he encountered this prejudice on social media when a news story discussed a free course his organization offers to adults in Westmoreland County who struggle with hoarding. “Somebody said, ‘What’s the point? They don’t even know that they have the issue,’” recalled Williams, who co-facilitates the course.
Hoarding disorder is a psychiatric illne.