‘It’s my hoarding mess, but it’s who I am’

“I’ve got a huge amount of stuff, and I’m always trying to order and organise it,” he says. “The better I get it neat and tidy, the better I cope – not just with my disability, but also the mental illness and the abuse that underlies it.”

Dan is a hoarder.

He attributes his condition to having moved over 50 times across three continents in 30 years. He says his sense of security has been repeatedly uprooted.

“When your sense of security keeps getting pulled out from under you, you hang on to things,” he adds. “It’s a vain attempt to establish some sense of security.”

Despite acknowledging that his hoarding makes him “horribly uncomfortable”, Dan finds it difficult to let go.

“It’s my life, it’s who I am. Even if it makes me uneasy, I can’t just let it go.”

Dan is among an estimated 1 in 40 adults under 55 who experience hoarding. For those over 55, it is roughly 6% of the population, although that may be a conservative estimate according to academics.

Hoarding is a condition that can be triggered by loss, trauma, or mental health issues. Hoarding disorder was officially recognised as a mental health condition in 2013 yet understanding and awareness is limited.