So, I don't know if you will have any info in terms of this but last night I was watching an episode of Hoarders and I thought of you. LOL, that doesn't sound right.
What I was thinking about is other countries and cultures and psychological issues. I wanted to ask you because of your line of work. Do other cultures and other people exhibit these kinds of things - hoarding, and whatever else you can think of. The beginning of the show always says something about 3 million americans are hoarders and it just made me wonder about anxiety, OCD, hoarding, depression in other cultures and areas. Have you done any reading or research about it?
well i know that a lot of depression and anxiety is associated with socioeconomic factors - generalized anx disorder is more prevalent in lower income and african american populations as compared to white and hispanic, and women have higher prevalence than men. phobias are higher for women, hispanic, african american, and low income. OCD prevalence is the same for men and women and across the ethnicities. in terms of cross-cultural stuff for anxiety, rates of OCD and panic seem to be similar in cross-cultural studies (these disorders seem to have a lot of biological underpinnings, so this makes sense that rates would be similar). (of course there are diagnostic issues among different socioeconomic groups within americans, and cross culturally, there are many different tools to evaluate symptoms and make diagnoses, so youre never REALLY getting a clear picture).
depression is an interesting one - the core symptoms of hopelessness and sadness are found world-wide at similar rates, but the specific details or manifestations are different (ie, chinese are more likely to be debilitated by things like fatigue and loss of appetite, while americans are more likely to feel things like self-blame and guilt).
i dont really know about hoarding in particular, except that it falls under the larger diagnosis of OCD.
