Hoarding Revisited

Last year, I wrote about the sin and evil of hoarding. Since then, I have discovered through a holy priest I met where I am, that this sin is a subset sin of Avarice, one of the capital sins. The capital sins are those which lead to other sins. Hoarding is not necessarily "merely" a personality disorder, like obsessive-compulsive disorder, but connected to spiritual evil.

The root could be fear and a lack of belief in Divine Providence, or the feeling of abandonment, which can also be healed by prayer and deliverance.

What Father Ripperger notes in some of his talks is that psychologists ignore the soul, and, therefore, cannot really treat or heal their patients in the majority of cases.

A friend of mine in another state brought up this sin today as she wanted to know the root cause of this after a situation which came up in her life. She wanted to know the spiritual background of certain personality disorders. I referred her to Father Ripperger's book, which I have already recommended on this blog last year. Here is the link to buy his book. But, a person cannot make decisions about another person without consulting a Catholic Thomist psychologist. One can deal with one's own problems through prayer, reading, counseling, study, and reflection.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Science-Mental-Health-Ripperger/dp/0615815391

The modern mind cannot comprehend that the seven deadly sins lead even to gross mental illness in some cases. Are there illnesses which can cause hoarding? Yes, but most problems come from the soul and the neglect of the intellect, rather than a mental problem.

Here is a list of symptoms from a mental health website. If you have family members who are hoarders, be patient, but work through the problems as much as you can from the aspect of the soul. Pray for them first of all, and then, study what Father Ripperger has to say about such things.

The great news is that people are delivered and healed through the proper means, (not charismatic,) of such sins. Praise God! Sin can be repented of and healed. So, this view should be good news.

Someone who hoards may exhibit the following:

• Inability to throw away possessions
• Severe anxiety when attempting to discard items
• Great difficulty categorizing or organizing possessions
• Indecision about what to keep or where to put things
• Distress, such as feeling overwhelmed or embarrassed by possessions
• Suspicion of other people touching items
• Obsessive thoughts and actions: fear of running out of an item or of needing it in the future; checking the trash for accidentally discarded objects
• Functional impairments, including loss of living space, social isolation, family or marital discord, financial difficulties, health hazards