Carrying on from what I started yesterday...regarding my interpretation of the book 'Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things'...the second theme I encountered:
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Central Idea 2: Emotional and Psychological Aspects of Hoarding
- Hoarders often experienced a lack of warmth, acceptance, and support during their early family life, potentially contributing to strong emotional attachments to possessions. (makes me think of those 'depression era' folks who became hoarders later in life - I once had to empty a relatives home and prep it for sale. The emotional toll this took on this person was certainly palpable, even at my young-ish age)
- Hoarders' minds seem flooded with details about possessions, indicating complex ways of thinking and processing information. (sound familiar?)
- Possessions for hoarders can hold deep emotional significance, acting as a connection to their past and the pasts of others. (I am 100000% guilty of this. I notice that I USE physical possessions to recall memories of people or experiences. Sometimes, when people I know die, I feel gravely indebted to hold onto anything I know that has passed through their hands)
- The act of hoarding may involve instinctual behaviors triggered by brain circuit malfunctions or genetic factors, as suggested by observations in animal hoarding. (squirrels hoard nuts without even thinking)
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To me, this book kinda challenged my thinking in ways that made it ok to think about and ok to define. Sometimes, you get a nagging feeling about something but can't put your finger on it and this book CERTAINLY helped me put my finger on quite a few of my behaviors and was able to put them into a greater context.
Thing about this book...it came out in 2011, so there are a lot of things that aren't really relevant or do seem outdated. I can DEFINITELY point to the emotional effects that COVID had on me as a driving force in my spending habits over the past couple of years...
Again, what about you? Where do you stand?