Experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties in hoarding disorder

Experiential avoidance can be defined as the tendency to avoid contact with unwanted internal experiences. Current conceptualizations of pathological hoarding appear broadly consistent with an experiential avoidant model. Eighty participants in four groups, namely hoarding disorder (HD) without comorbid obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), HD with comorbid OCD, non-hoarding OCD, and healthy controls, were administered measures of experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties. Hoarding individuals reported higher levels of experiential avoidance and difficulties in emotion regulation compared to healthy but not to OCD participants. Both experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties were significantly more prominent when HD was comorbid with OCD than when HD occurred without comorbid OCD. Correlation analyses further showed that both experiential avoidance and emotion regulation were moderately but significantly associated with obsessive–compulsive but not hoarding symptoms. Thus, experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties are not specifically relevant to HD but to a broad range of psychopathologies. However, despite the lack of specificity, the findings raise some potentially useful clinical implications for the treatment of HD.

► Experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties have not been specifically explored in hoarding disorder (HD).
► Individuals with HD had higher levels of experiential avoidance and difficulties in emotion regulation compared to healthy but not to OCD participants.
► Experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties were significantly associated with obsessive–compulsive but not hoarding symptoms.
► Experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties occur across a range of emotional disorders, rather than being specific to HD.