BLOG No. THIRTY NINE

Welcome back to my blog on anxiety and depression. As promised, I would like to discuss hoarders. (3 promises kept in a row! I will never make it into public office!) So what are hoarders? Well, they are people that hoard things. (Give this man a Nobel Prize!) Actually, it’s a little bit more complicated than that. Hoarding is when people have trouble getting rid of things, i.e. newspapers from 20 years ago, old books that will never be read again, obsolete broken furniture, boxes and boxes of useless junk—yes, this sounds like Adam Schiff’s office, but it’s different.

Hoarders can’t let go of anything. “I might need that someday,” they say.

“Mom, you don’t need a head gasket for a ’78 Pinto! They don’t exist anymore! They never should have!”

But hoarders cannot let go of anything.

The rooms are stacked until the floor joists creak. And none of these treasures are ever used. There are paths between the stacks of useless goods. And if you suggest getting rid of a few things, the hoarder looks at you as if you are out of your mind.

Do you know how to fix a hoarder? How? You get them addicted to crack and they will sell everything!

On a real note though, what do you think is going on with hoarders? What makes them obsessive and compulsive over worthless treasure? Wait a minute…obsessive and compulsive? We know what causes that!

D2 dopamine causes that.

Okay, I know what you are thinking. D2 dopamine is responsible for everything. It is responsible for every negative thing in the universe. Well of course not. But D2 dopamine in excess is a condition, like for example, diabetes. In diabetes, excess sugar (substitute D2 dopamine) can manifest in many ways. For one patient it might be blurry vision, for another it might be excessive thirst, and for another, it might be a painful neuropathy (burning nerves in the feet) that constitute their main complaint.

Yes, it is all caused by elevated blood sugar, but it manifests differently in different patients.

In D2 dopamine patients you can say the same. In one patient it could be OCD and in another be severe anxiety. It is just different facets of the same problem. And I think nurture may also play a role. (‘bout time you mentioned it, Dweeb!) I think a patient’s upbringing may play a big role in how excessive D2 dopamine manifests itself. Imagine being raised an a home where shoes can’t be worn in the house, your mother presides over your hand-washing and tooth-brushing, and regardless of how long you shower, she cleans the outside of your ears with a washcloth. Add in a little D2 dopamine, and you have yourself a germaphobe.

Now, imagine growing up poor and getting hand-me-downs, and not having much of anything to your name in the way of personal possessions. Then grow up, mix in a little D2 dopamine, and now you have yourself a hoarder. Just a theory, but I think it makes sense.

Well as I am writing this, I am staring over Long Lake in northern Wisconsin for a brief stay. I have exchanged my Chardonnay for a local pale ale, and after a couple of them, I can’t tell if the water is moving, the dock is moving or I am moving… so I am not going to move. So until next time, when we talk about a pediatric case study, this is Dr. G saying keep the faith!