Dr. David Tolin is the Founder & Director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living, the author of over 200 scientific journal articles & even received the Award for Lifetime Contribution to Psychology from the CT Psychological Association, but you may recognize him from the reality TV series Hoarders, The OCD Project or My Shopping Addiction. In this episode he shares what diagnosing hoarding disorder looks like, what brain scans reveal & the myth of trauma.

This episode originally aired November 27, 2023.

If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episode 208: TRIGGER WARNINGS: MAKING US FRAGILE OR HELPING US HEAL?

Guest:

https://drtolin.com/home

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidtolin/

https://a.co/d/hDRDee8

Host:

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02:38 — How common hoarding really is

04:05 — When clutter ≠ hoarding disorder

05:00 — Why letting go feels painful

06:02 — What actually causes hoarding

08:00 — Attention, cognition, vulnerability

10:00 — Why empathy changes everything

11:05 — ADHD, brain scans, and myths

14:10 — The “salience network” explained

15:05 — Why clutter fades into the background

16:00 — When every object feels urgent

17:05 — Decision-making becomes unbearable

18:10 — Avoidance as survival strategy

20:00 — Why animal hoarding is different

23:00 — What people actually hoard

24:00 — When hoarding becomes extreme

25:10 — Digital hoarding counts too

26:05 — Emails, photos, and emotional pain

27:00 — Objects as identity

30:15 — The downward arrow technique

31:20 — Why therapists and patients talk past each other

32:15 — Anthropomorphizing our stuff

33:20 — Why kids’ toys still haunt us

34:15 — Grief as an accelerant

35:20 — Stuff as memory protection

36:10 — Acquiring as mood regulation

37:10 — When retail therapy backfires

38:15 — Emotion regulation gone wrong

39:10 — Compassion without enabling

40:05 — Boundaries that don’t abandon

41:10 — Why insight takes repetition

42:15 — Therapy isn’t one magic moment

43:10 — How to stay anchored in reality

44:05 — Questions that interrupt impulse

45:10 — Why self-questioning works better

46:15 — What “success” actually looks like

47:15 — Managing vs curing hoarding

48:10 — Exposure therapy in real life

49:10 — TJ Maxx as a trigger

50:05 — Sitting with discomfort on purpose

51:10 — Rewriting your relationship with stuff

52:05 — How hoarding changed his own habits

53:10 — Keeping what truly serves you

54:05 — Buried in Treasures and next steps

55:10 — Final reflections on stuff and self

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