As they wait for their session to begin they chat and laugh easily among themselves. Outwardly there is nothing to indicate they all share a “shameful” connection.

The session begins with sharing their successes of the past week. A middle-aged man speaks first. 

“I took some junk to the market and held a stall,” he says in a quiet voice. The others in the room cheer and congratulate him.

Psychologist Michael Bazaley tells him, “That’s fantastic.” He leads the group in a round of applause. Next to him, it is another man’s turn to report his progress.

“I’ve gone through my boxes … it’s progressive,” he says.

Bazaley chimes in telling him he has made a “fantastic effort”.

“From where you were at the start of this therapy program to now, you are actually looking through all your possessions ... finding out what is of value and what is not of value and moving on. And also decreasing your acquisitions,” Mr Bazaley says. 

However, the man confesses he has bought more “things” at a recent auction. 

“I bought things I know I can sell, but then I bought some things I know I shouldn’t have,” he says. 

His recent purchase of two boxes of books includes “a couple of very important books on guernsey knitting.”

The people in the room are hoarders. Each and every one of them has acquired so many possessions it has taken over their lives. 

In 2015 hoarding disorder was added to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, making it an official mental illness.  According to the manual, it is a “persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their value”, and “distress associated with discarding them”.

Mr Bazaley, with fellow psychologist Barb Donnan, have been running a group-based course Buried in Treasures, developed by a US expert to help hoarders recover.  

“We know from research, trauma and depression underlie it,” Mr Bazaley said. 

“It makes their thinking problematic. They will see a bottle top, we see it as rubbish but they see an opportunity, perhaps to turn it into a Christmas decoration.”

Danielle James is a 36-year-old mother whose hoarding began after a marriage breakdown in 2012.

“My life was pretty overwhelming, I had crashed and burned after a lot of bad things happened, one after the other, after the other,” she said.

Hoarding became a coping mechanism. 

“It was like an addictive form of coping. I acquired a lot to make myself happier. I acquired when I was feeling happy ... but then I could not let go of things,” she said. 

She bought things she thought would be useful in her new life as a single mother. But most of them remained unused. 

“I couldn’t let anything go because I feared I would never get it back again … I had the additional problem that when I wanted to get rid of something it had to go to the right place, the perfect right place,” she said.

“It was just out of control.”

Ms James’s Newcastle home became so cluttered with her “acquisitions” she was ashamed to let people in the door. 

She developed strategies to keep them away and that is when the isolation set in.   

“There was no way I could have anyone around. If people came to my door I was just heading out, I was always just heading out,” she said. 

“I wouldn’t have friends around, my children couldn’t have play-dates.

“It was impossible. I was embarrassed and ashamed all the time. I feared the real estate agent coming. Constant, overwhelming fear.

“I felt so alone, I wondered why other people could get their act together, but I could not.”

Prior to developing hoarding disorder Ms James had worked in the corporate sector on a six-figure salary. But as the hoarding consumed her life, she had to quit her job. 

The crunch came at the beginning of 2016 when she allowed her young son to have two friends over to play. They walked in the door, looked around and said, “Gee your house is really messy.”

“That was horrific … that was pretty brutal, that broke my heart on a number of levels,” she said. 

A “beautiful” friend told her about the course and she decided to attend. At week nine she was required to bring an acquisition to the group and give it away. The first thing she “let go of” was an egg carton.

“It sounds so dumb, but they had so many possibilities. I could give them to friends with chickens, we could do craft with them, I could use them to separate bits of jewellery,” she said. 

“I would collect them and then not use them.”

However the hardest item to let go of was a pair of jeans that did not fit. 

“They were a good brand, I got them on sale,” she said. “They were an awful shape, but I couldn’t let go of them.”

Through the course’s gentle approach she began clear out the house. 

“Once I got going, I had days where I took nine bags of clothes to Vinnies in one hit,” she said.

Her house now looks like an ordinary family home and has maintained its new streamline look for more than two months. 

“It’s ridiculous, it doesn’t feel like my house,” she said. “I’m still getting used to it, but I love it.” 

The best part is she can now have visitors. 

“My whole life has genuinely been changed by this program, “ she said. 

She feels her life is back on track and has recently begun to apply for jobs. 

“I haven't heard back yet, but I feel much better about the situation. I feel like I could go for an interview and honestly go for that job,” she said. 

A second course for people with hoarding disorder begins in February 2017. For information: admin@newcastleclinic.com.au, or phone 4910 4005. 

Estimate 2-5% of the population

Prevalence increases with age

Origins in adolescence

H.D. has a genetic and environmental component (based on twin studies) 

Brain scans indicate people with H.D. making decisions about their own possessions have over-activity in areas related to judging importance and relevance

Total number of traumatic life events correlated with severity of H.D.

Factors that maintain H.D. are: emotional attachment and unhelpful beliefs about possessions and problems processing information e.g.: memory, decision making, sustaining attention.