You might need this book and not know it.

books:


	• Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost, ... Oxford University Press, USA, 2007 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

You might need this book and not know it.

Hard core look at why we can't throw things away. New info, not just a "how to organize" book. Real help for pack rats like me who are not over the edge yet, but are teetering.

A Useful Tool

In the introduction of "Buried in Treasures", Tolin, Frost and Steketee offer two cautions to the reader. Caution 1 "this book will not solve your hoarding problems". They state "this book is a guide that will provide you with the necessary information to understand the problem of compulsive hoarding and will give you tools to help beat the problem". Caution 2 is that "overcoming compulsive hoarding will be hard work".

The authors emphasize that hoarding is "a problem of emotional, mental, behavioral, and social well-being" and that "some scientific evidence suggests that there may be a genetic component to hoarding". It is basically a description of the treatment program that they have developed over many years of treating patients at their hoarding clinic. While the book discusses the physical side regarding sorting and purging as well as the stopping of the acquiring, its' emphasis is on the mental/emotional side of hoarding.

As opposed to other similar books, this book is based on science and ongoing clinical research. The book is essentially a guide to change and the authors note that "people start to work on their hoarding problem when the reasons for change outweigh the reasons for not changing, and not a moment sooner". Their suggested treatment is based on CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) which is solution focused.

This is somewhat of a workbook. It includes many exercises to help the hoarder to consciously change their thinking. Some examples are a self-assessment test in the chapter "What is Compulsive Hoarding?", a hoarding severity scale that is very similar
to the NSGCD Hoarding Scale, Visualization Exercises, Category & Location lists and questionnaires such as "Comparing Your Perceptions with Those of Others".

Early in the book, the authors introduce and discuss the Bad Guys: 1 - It's Just Not My Priority, 2 - Letting Unhelpful Beliefs Get In Your Way, 3 - Overthinking or Confusing Yourself, 4 - Avoidance and Excuse Making and 5 - Going for the Short-Term Payoff. Then they introduce the Good Guys: 1- Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize, 2 - Downward Arrow, 3 - Thinking It Through, 4 - Behavioral Experiments and 5 - Developing the Right Skills. The authors revisit the Bad Guys and the Good Guys again later in the book when dealing with motivation and "taking on your brain".

An interesting observation noted by the authors was that when hoarders attempted to sort their own items, they tended to have lots of little categories but when sorting similar items that belonged to other people, they were able to sort into a few large general categories. This suggests that when dealing with their own possessions, "their emotions get in the way and cause them to process information differently".

As a Professional Organizer, I consider this book a tool. It is not a `how to' that a hoarder could pick up, read and follow to a successful conclusion. On their own, most hoarders are just not capable of following some of the suggestions, such as, "you might want to think a step or two ahead"! However this is an excellent book if used as part of a larger treatment program.

for more information click here

Good info for relatives of hoarders

This book has a lot of valuable information about hoarders and how their minds process differently than non-hoarders. Although the intended audience is hoarders themselves, I don't see hoarders as able to read this book and follow the process. I do think the book is helpful to anyone who lives with or knows a hoarder, and also mental health providers.
One negative: the large page size is a bit unwieldy.

Excellent book!

While it's true that it is not presented in a scholarly way (as a previous reviewer commented), the information in the book represents the most current knowledge we have on hoarding. As others have mentioned, the authors are preeminent experts in the field. All three are Ph.Ds and have published numerous scholarly works on this topic. I believe the authors must have deliberately chosen to leave out the clinical jargon for this book, in order to make the information accessible to those without a medical or science background. I think the book is quite elegant in its simplicity and clarity, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about hoarding.

for more information click here

A recommended pick

BURIED IN TREASURES: HELP FOR COMPULSIVE ACQUIRING, SAVING, AND HOARDING is written for those who have a compulsive hoarding problem: it comes from a team of scientists who have worked for over a dozen years on developing a program for treating hording, and chapters both define compulsive hoarding and offer strategies to begin to sort, discard and move away from hoarding habits. The authors have been featured on TV and in articles for their ground-breaking research, and BURIED IN TREASURES is thus a recommended pick beyond the usual college-level health library, reaching easily into public library collections with an easily-accessed format and approach.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

search for books
buried in treasures, acquiring, buried, compulsive, help, hoarding, saving, treasures

Impressum / about us