Hi there, and welcome to the boards. I'm fairly new here myself but plan to check in often. I think you'll find as I did that there are good people here and lots of insight.

Your story is like many - life gets on top of us, loss and grief, health issues - all of those contribute to it. Often we don't have the non-judgmental help dealing with it at the right time when it was still manageable, so it continues to snowball. Sounds like you've made a great start, though. Remember - I know it's a cliche' but it's true - BABY STEPS. :)

Hello: I am not sure why I hoard exactly. Possibly trauma, physical injury, or mental illness read on.

It didn't happen overnight. In 10 yrs, I lost my job for 3 yrs & had to go back to college. I had a hand crush injury leaving me left handed for 2 yrs. I have Crohns complicated by affecting my lungs. I have Fibromyalgia which makes me really tired & very sore. Then of all things I was struck by lightning. Prior to that any crisis/illness I could handle & rebound/catch up on house work. Something happened after the lightning strike I became very disorganized. During this time I also lost my brother & mother unexpectedly and with all of this was DX'd PTSD. I guess it does not matter why/which experience causes my hoarding, because I am physically or mentally unable to keep it together like I used to. I have a daughter that was in a car accident & she left the equivalent of 2 apts in my home & moved onto her own place. That did not help. I have not brought anything new into my home, but, am slow in getting it out of here. I have no help. So you see it is complicated and did not happen overnight. Hoarding is real and different for each person. I used to be a neat freak. I have a 4.0 at college. I am so frustrated that I cannot just jump in my bathroom and clean it top to bottom. I get it done, but what should take 1 hr tops can take 2 weeks.