Why Hoarding Disorders Are A Problem
A hoarding disorder can be a problem for several reasons. It can take over the person’s life, making it very difficult for them to get around their house. It can cause their work performance, personal hygiene and relationships to suffer.
The person hoarding is usually reluctant or unable to have visitors or even allow tradesmen in to carry out essential repairs, which can cause isolation and loneliness.
The clutter can pose a health risk to the person and anyone who lives in or visits their house. For example, it can:
- make cleaning very difficult, leading to unhygienic conditions and encouraging rodent or insect infestations
- be a fire risk and block exits in the event of a fire
- cause trips and falls
- fall over or collapse on people, if kept in large piles
The hoarding could also be a sign of an underlying condition, such as OCD, other types of anxiety, depression and dementia.
What Is The Life Expectancy Of Ftd
The average life expectancy after a diagnosis of FTD is 7.5 years. But the condition can progress faster or slower. Your healthcare provider is the best person to tell you more about the progress of the disease and the likely timeline. They can also update you throughout the course of the disease if it progresses faster or slower than expected.
What Is Vascular Dementia
Dementia is a general term for issues with memory, reasoning, planning, and judgment. The causes for dementia vary depending on the symptoms and the underlying condition.
The most common type of dementia is Alzheimers disease, followed by vascular dementia.
While experts believe Alzheimers is caused by a buildup of abnormal proteins in the brain, vascular dementia is caused by brain damage from impaired blood flow in the brain.
This may occur after a stroke, or from any other condition such as a transient ischemic attack , that damages blood vessels in the brain and deprives it of oxygen.
As with many other types of dementia, vascular dementia can develop gradually, and the progression of the disease generally falls into seven stages.
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Medical Causes Of Sleeping Problems In Dementia
Sleeping problems may be caused by physiological or medical causes including:
- brain damage that affects the biological clock in the brain that directs our sleep patterns
- illness such as angina, congestive heart failure, diabetes or ulcers
- pain caused by conditions such as arthritis
- urinary tract infections that cause a frequent need to urinate
- leg crampsor restless legs, which can indicate a metabolic problem
- depressionthat causes early morning wakening and an inability to get back to sleep
- side effects of medication, such as antidepressants and diuretics
- snoring and sleep apnoea
- ageing that causes sleep patterns to change so that some people need more sleep and some need less.
Things you can try include:
Where To Live With Dementia
Eventually, caregiving for someone with dementia wont be appropriate anymore. The needs of a person with progressive dementia become overwhelming, and moving into a full-time residence with trained staff becomes necessary. You should plan for this well before it becomes necessary, by visiting communities and asking the right questions.
Depending on your loved ones stage of illness, different living options are available:
Assisted Living in Early StagesAssisted living residences combine room and board with medical and personal care, and are often sufficient for someone in the early stages of Alzheimers disease or related dementia. Full-time supervision means residents are safe, with living units like private studios or apartments so someone with mild dementia can still feel a sense of independence.
Services offered in assisted living include meals, help with activities of daily living , social activities, and transportation to and from doctors appointments. Before moving in, the residence will assess your loved one to make sure its a good fit.
Memory care residences have physical designs that are appropriate for people with dementia. Someone with Alzheimers, for instance, may become upset when encountering a wall, so memory care buildings have circular hallways. Because people with dementia are prone to wander, memory care residences have increased security and supervision, and special locks on doors.
Did You Know?
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How To Manage Hoarding Behaviors In A Person With Dementia
More than five million Americans live with dementia, and the issues it can cause go well beyond memory loss and confusion. For many sufferers and their families, secondary problems, like hoarding, present a huge challenge. If youre caring for a relative with dementia who is exhibiting hoarding behaviors, its important to get informed and deal with the problem as quickly and safely as possible. Read on to find out what hoarding is, why it occurs, and how you can deal with it.
What Causes Dementia Rummaging Behavior
Alzheimers disease and other dementias cause problems with memory and thinking. This can lead to repetitive or challenging behaviors.
Rummaging is a coping mechanism for the disorientation that dementia causes.
The person with dementia is usually trying to reassure themselves that familiar items are still there or are trying to fulfill a need, like eating when hungry or doing something useful.
Attempting to get someone to stop rummaging or re-organizing can cause them to become increasingly agitated, paranoid, and determined to do it.
Instead, manage the behavior so its safer and less disruptive.
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Compulsive Hoarding In Dementia Patients
Compulsive hoarding is classified as a psychological disorder that is associated with individuals who possess OCD tendencies. For seniors past a certain age with a history of collecting items or being diagnosed with OCD, aspects of this behavior may increase until it becomes what is known as pathological hoarding. Pathological hoarding occurs when these behaviors begin to seriously impact a persons life and health.
Individuals who are prone to anxiety may begin to collect and save items of seeming insignificance in response to the aging process making the necessity of accumulated resources more present. As a persons physical and mental faculties decrease, they may accumulate more items as a psychological defense mechanism to protect against the fear of the end or fear of losing their memories. These actions tend to signify a need for comfort and security in the face of fear and anxiety experienced by many individuals living with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia.
Forms of Hoarding for Dementia Patients
Managing Hoarding Behaviors for Seniors With Dementia
Be Understanding and Kind
Provide Alternative Activities
The Alzheimers Association suggests that individuals with dementia may require intensive and interesting activities in order reduce harmful behaviors from occurring such as hoarding. This could be anything from reorganizing a closet to sorting beads. Anything that can occupy their mind and keep them engaged and distracted for a time is useful.
What’s The Difference Between Hoarding And Collecting
Many people collect items such as books or stamps, and this is not considered a problem. The difference between a “hoard” and a “collection” is how these items are organised.
A collection is usually well ordered, and the items are easily accessible. A hoard is usually very disorganised, takes up a lot of room and the items are largely inaccessible.
For example, someone who collects newspaper reviews may cut out the reviews they want and organise them in a catalogue or scrapbook. Someone who hoards may keep large stacks of newspapers that clutter their entire house and mean it’s not actually possible to read any of the reviews they wanted to keep.
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Failing To Pick Up On Sarcasm And Spot A Liar
You may or may not appreciate a sarcastic sense of humor, but sarcasm is a part of our culture. “We see it as a nice way to be critical, and so we use it constantly, even when we are trying to be nice,” says Rankin, whose research found that people with both frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease tend to have a harder time picking up on sarcasm.
Another unusual sign of dementia that Rankin noticed? People with FTD couldn’t tell when someone was lying, although people with Alzheimer’s disease could tell. “FTD patients don’t have that sense anymore that things that people do could turn out badly,” she says.
Create Mementos Of Discarded Items
Creating small mementos can help sufferers get over the feeling of loss that comes with getting rid of items. You could take photographs and print them out, make lists of items that are being donated, or put together a memory scrapbook before discarding sentimental items. Be kind and sensitive at all times, even if you dont understand your relatives attachment to certain objects.
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Other Causes Of Sleeping Problems In Dementia
Other causes of sleeping problems may include:
- going to bed too early
- sleeping too much during the day
- overtiredness, causing tenseness and inability to fall asleep
- not enough exercise, so the person does not feel tired
- too much caffeine or alcohol
- agitation following an upsetting situation
- disturbing dreams.
Why Is Hoarding Behavior Problematic
Hoarding is more than just a nuisance for family caregivers and other care providers. Clutter takes over living spaces, stripping the functionality from kitchen counters, sinks, bathrooms, and more. This ultimately affects a seniors quality of life.
Physically, hoarding behavior creates the following problems.
- Difficulty walking safely through a room
- Unsanitary living conditions
- Fire risk, particularly when items are hoarded in the kitchen
- Expired food in the refrigerator or pantry
But the repercussions of hoarding aren’t just physical. There are social and emotional ramifications of hoarding behavior.
- Unpaid bills hiding in piles of mail
- Difficulty managing daily living in a cluttered environment
- Frustration and stress from lack of organization
- Loneliness and social isolation
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Concern About Losing Special Things Or Being Robbed
Some elderly might have different concerns. Perhaps theyve misplaced special items in the past, including really expensive things, such as their smartphones or precious keepsakes like family photos.
They dont want to experience that fear again, so they begin holding onto more items so they cant be lost in the future.
Ironically, the very act of hoarding makes it a lot harder to find any one particular item and does increase the likelihood of items ending up lost.
Perhaps after a burglary in their neighborhood or one that affected them directly, your senior parent or loved one is suddenly very scared about being robbed and of their personal belongings again.
They may subconsciously believe that the more items they have, the safer they are. Having an excessive accumulation of items gives them a sense of security.
Once again, a hoarder is often anything but safe, as hoarded items cause safety issues in the form of tripping hazards and increasing the risks of fires, as well.
What Are The Risk Factors For Vascular Dementia
Because vascular dementia commonly occurs as a result of conditions that damage blood vessels in the brain, the risk factors for this type of dementia are similar to stroke or heart disease.
These risks include:
- Adults aged 65 or older
- History of heart attack or stroke
- High blood pressure
- Abnormal aging of blood vessels
- Atrial fibrillation
Brain and heart health are strongly connected.
Those at risk of developing vascular dementia can reduce their risk by quitting smoking, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and working with a doctor to maintain any health issues.
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Is Hoarding A Symptom Of Alzheimers
Although hoarding behaviors are a common occurrence in patients with Alzheimers and dementia, dont be mistaken: hoarding is not a common symptom of Alzheimers disease.
Some patients can be diagnosed with dementia and never hoard a day in their lives.
Others will begin hoarding as the disease progresses .
If you see your senior parent or loved one beginning to go through a hoarding phase, helping them might prevent the problem from becoming severe. Well present our top tips for dealing with a dementia hoarder later in this article.
So why is it that some dementia patients hoard and others dont? It all depends on the type of dementia a senior has.
The various types of dementia are mixed dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, and Alzheimers.
Frontotemporal dementia affects the same part of the brain where stockpiling occurs.
Thus, if your senior has frontotemporal dementia, theyre likeliest to begin hoarding.
That doesnt mean that other forms of dementia cannot cause this behavior as well, but theyre less likely to.
Whats The Outlook For This Condition
FTD gradually affects more and more areas of your brain, disrupting the abilities those areas control. The average life expectancy for a person after diagnosis with FTD is 7.5 years.
While FTD isnt fatal on its own, it often causes other issues that are serious or even life-threatening. One common problem that often happens as FTD gets worse is dysphagia . Having dysphagia causes problems with eating, drinking and speaking, and increases the risk of developing pneumonia or respiratory failure.
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How Do You Deal With A Dementia Hoarder
Maybe your senior parent or loved one with early stage dementia has become a hoarder. Each time you visit their home, its piled up with more and more stuff.
The place is starting to smell, as well.
Youre not sure what to do, but you know you have to do something before the problem gets even worse. How can you deal with a dementia hoarder?
Heres what we recommend.
How Can Caregivers Help
While it might be tempting to proactively reorganize and remove clutter from a seniors environment, this is not always beneficial. People with dementia need to feel safe and secure. It is essential to maintain seniors sense of dignity and control.
So what can you do to help with hoarding behavior?
To help make seniors part of the process, follow these tips from CaregiverStress.com:
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Where Hoarding And Dementia Meet
For Georgie Evans and her grandma, dementia has made hoarding even more complicated. Objects took on greater significance but, as Grandma began to lose things and have falls, the stuffed bungalow became increasingly unsafe. Georgies feelings about Grandmas things started to shift, and an unhappy compromise had to be reached.
WordsbyGeorgie EvansartworkbyNicole CoffieldAverage reading time4 minutes9 June 2022
I dont remember the early days of Grandmas dementia. I was young, and it appeared without me noticing. Once it was becoming more obvious, I forgot quickly what she was like before. It was as though she had always been that way, at any moment on the cusp of forgetting my name.
The symptoms I noticed were mostly based around talking: Grandma would lose the thread of her sentences. Our conversations were always at risk of crumbling away, the substance lost. She started to fidget more, too, and would choose to sort through her jewellery and her handbags rather than have a proper chat. Or maybe shed forgotten we were sitting there with her.
Later, when shed lose track of her belongings, shed become furious with the people she thought had taken them. She started to have falls.
Those last symptoms might still have happened had she not hoarded. But it looked as though the untidiness of her bungalow was causing her to lose things and to fall.
There is safety in having a lot of belongings just as there is danger in living around unsteady piles of things.
How Can I Prevent Ftd Or Reduce My Risk Of Developing It
FTD happens unpredictably, so theres no way to prevent it. But, it might be possible to reduce your risk of developing it.
The sole way to reduce your risk of developing FTD is to avoid head injuries. Having a past head injury more than triples your risk of developing FTD. A key way to avoid head injuries is to use safety equipment whenever necessary. Helmets and safety restraints can help prevent head injuries or reduce how severe they are if they happen.
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Stage : Clinginess Or Clingy Dementia
When someone slips into this stagebecoming clingythey are experiencing confusion on such a level that they are commonly unable to do simple tasks when alone, or cannot understand whether its morning or afternoon, Tuesday or Saturday, October or May. They might say, Id feel better if I could hold your arm. They may not be able to verbalize this need and just reach out and take their companions arm. In a crowd, even in a small group, these people sidle closer or lean into their companions. They look for eye contact and want to make eye contact often. For them, at this point most people have become strangerseven family members and dear friendsalthough they will still do their best to mask it. Memories can be recalled and faces placed, but it requires careful leading through a series of related memories to get there, if at all.
Routine and familiarity are now essential. The smallest change can bring on a crisis of fear and confusion. When someone reaches this stage, we need to vigilantly watch for the moment they move to the next level of need, which will be a transition we dare not ignore. The change may be sudden or gradual, the result of a crisis or merely a response to an accumulation of daily failures or irritations. They will now need someone with them at night.