You've read the headlines: After being reported missing for seven years, woman is found dead in her house, lost among the clutter. Woman suffocates and dies under collapsed piles of clothes. Male trash hoarder dies in labyrinth of garbage tunnels.

Some articles call them hoarders, others call them packrats. These stories seem extreme and isolated. But according to new research from the University of Michigan Health System, hoarding presents a real danger, not only for those who do it but also for their neighbors -- creating fire hazards, as well as unsanitary, unsafe conditions. In addition, hoarders face the real prospect of becoming buried under an avalanche of trash. Researchers note that treating hoarding is difficult because people who suffer from it don't see it as a problem. According to the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation (OCF), an estimated 700,000 to 1.4 million people in the United States are believed to have compulsive hoarding syndrome, a sub-condition of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The OCF defines hoarding as "the acquisition of, and inability to discard, worthless items even though they appear (to others) to have no value ... [Hoarders] have symptoms of indecisiveness, procrastination, and avoidance ..."

Below, Jeff Szymanski, Ph.D., executive director of the OCF, explains the differences between packrats and obsessive hoarders and just why someone may become a hoarder. Plus, read an excerpt that details how hoarding has affected two people first-hand -- and their families.

AOL Health: Can you explain the difference between a packrat and a compulsive hoarder?

Szymanski: The difference between a packrat and a hoarder is functioning. A packrat has a cluttered house, a filled garage. There is disarray in some rooms of the house. A hoarder is spending money on lockers or additional storage space, has a hard time getting around the house and is filling up the car with possessions because they've run out of room in the house.

AOL Health: Would you say that packrats have a mental health condition the way hoarders do?

Szymanski: Packrats aren't necessarily keeping people out of their house because of their clutter. People who are packrats say, "I just don't have the time to go through this and get rid of it." There is avoidance -- they recognize that it's a problem, but they ignore it. Hoarders, they love all their stuff, and they have no plans to get rid of it. Packrats don't really need any treatment -- they just like to have a lot of stuff, but it doesn't affect their lives. Hoarders say, "I am unable to socialize, unable to get to my job. I'm not living my life in the way that I'd like to."

AOL Health: Are people born compulsive hoarders, or do they become them?

Szymanski: We do think there is probably some difference in how their brains work, with how they organize information. Hoarders report that when they walk into a room, they have to respond to all sorts of different inputs at once [because they see] value in everything so their attention is drawn to everything at once. They want to attend to everything so it has its proper time. They see things in a vacuum, where everything has equal value. Their wedding ring is a recyclable bottle is a sleeping bag from 1943 is anything.

To get them to acknowledge that there is a difference, you set up "pro" and "con" lists. Hoarders end up living in these houses that are fire hazards. They're no longer able to use parts of their houses in the way they are intended. So you do this kind of pro-and-con analysis by rank, ordering these things. Ask, "What's the value of being able to eat at your dining room table again?" Or say, "A coffee cup can't really be as valuable as your wedding ring." You say to them, "Although this is important, it may be less important than something else." You have to go through this process of how important something is in the overall scheme of things.

AOL Health: Do hoarders tend to collect different things, or are there commonalities among hoarders?

Szymanski: Probably the most common things are newspapers, magazines, books, clothing, receipts, bills and we're seeing a lot of people getting caught up in having lots and lots of e-mails and junk mail in their in-boxes.

AOL Health: So there's hoarding in the virtual world too?

Szymanski: Exactly.

AOL Health: Do people ever go back and read the newspapers or magazines they've saved?

Szymanski: What they typically say is, "I'm going to put this magazine aside and go through rest of the mail." Then maybe two weeks later, they'll come to the magazine and say, "Oh, I want to read that; let me put it aside." It's called churning. They pick things up and say, "This is valuable," then they put it down and put it aside. Eventually, they'll have 200 magazines that they're behind on reading. They would spend three hours reading through one magazine making sure they didn't miss anything important. How can you do that if you're behind 200 magazines?

AOL Health: Can you describe the treatment?

Szymanski: Treatment typically involves going into their houses. It's going to be hard to de-hoard someone's house from an office, [though] you can have them bring boxes into your office. The first thing that you do is to sit down and talk with them: "Are you living your life the way you want to?" It's about building some motivation to see that the hoarding is really a problem. In some ways they might not have thought about this. And then it is just about looking at what are the kinds of things they collect. Then going into their homes, seeing how bad it is. Are beds filled with things, bathrooms filled with things, tables filed with things -- is it pervasive or just some areas of the house? Then start with one area, maybe the office, [focusing on] the desk in the office. Then go through a system of deciding what to keep and what to discard. You want to start with just a very specific area. You might say, "There are a lot of bills here. Let's go back and figure out how many years back you want to keep things for." Once you get them on board with that, you say, "Let's set up a folder system. Let's get them into a filing cabinet." It's about making choices, encouraging them to get rid of things, setting up guidelines, and then putting things where they belong. Suggesting, "When you go through your mail, get your bills, pay them and then put them in these folders." It sounds like a complicated process, which is why you go with one thing at a time. A cardinal rule when you're helping hoarders is that you never really touch their stuff.

AOL Health: Is there medication people can take in conjunction with this therapy?

Szymanski: What the de-hoarding process does is provides a hoarder with decision-making skills and organization skills, but it can also provide coping skills and stress-management skills and replacement activities. People who hoard may also be compulsive shoppers, so you can find other things for them to take pleasure and value in. Some of it might be that they just might be socially anxious -- since they've been away from human contact for so long. We had one patient at McLean [Hospital] who was overwhelmed by all the interaction, since he'd been isolated so long. You can provide social skills training to get them out to socialize more. For someone who is a hoarder, medication will help them access these forms of therapy better. They may go off the medication in the future at the recommendation of their psychiatrist to see what happens.

AOL Health: Do hoarders usually acknowledge they have a problem, or is it the case that a family member or friend urges them to seek help?

Szymanski: Most often a family member or loved one encourages it. Typically there is a lot of conflict. Family members think that going in and throwing out people's stuff, while they're out of town or in the hospital, or cleaning out the entire house [is the way to solve the problem]. Instead, people come back feeling very, very angry and end up filling the house all over again. They have to want to solve the problem on their own.

AOL Health: So is there a "cure" for hoarding?

Szymanski: It's an ongoing thing, which is the case for OCD in general. If you've learned something and you've been doing it for a long time -- the analogy I like to use is, if someone was a smoker for 20 years and now hasn't smoked in 20 years, do they still get cravings for cigarettes? The impulse doesn't go away.

AOL Health: How are people's family and social lives affected by hoarding?

Szymanski: They don't like people going through their things, so they tend to not have people over. Because they get so preoccupied with their stuff, they tend to not go out. If you're living with them, they're always encroaching on your space. So there are lots of disagreements. If they're living alone, family members might begin to worry that their living conditions are unsafe.

AOL Health: Can hoarding affect a person's work life too?

Szymanski: I would say a majority of the hoarders I worked with were not employed. They were smart; they had once been employed. But they end up losing their jobs because they get too detail-oriented. If a paper clip came across their desk, they would spend too much time figuring out where it belonged. They lose the forest for the trees. I've worked with some people who were holding jobs, but they were struggling.

AOL Health: Some people hoard animals. Is that related to compulsive hoarding?

Szymanski: Yes. These people will say, "A stray came up to my door, how could I turn it away?" It's the same kind of thing -- they think, "Everything is important. I'm responsible for everything that comes my way." So they end up with a houseful of strays. Then they end up getting into trouble with law enforcement or animal protective agencies. We just had a woman who had her 21 cats taken away, and the question was whether she would be able to get any back, so she decided to seek treatment.

AOL Health: What are some of the factors that can lead to someone becoming a hoarder? Are some people predisposed to collect things? Men vs. women, old vs. young, rich vs. poor?

Szymanski: For OCD occurrence in general, it's equal for men and women and doesn't affect a particular age group or socioeconomic status. We had a case of a homeless man who'd been hoarding for ten years. Then there was a case of a mansion-bound woman who sought help. So it can be very, very wealthy people to extremely poor people.

AOL Health: What should someone do if they suspect a loved one is a hoarder?

Szymanski: One of the first things we recommend is that they get educated about hoarding. Actually, we have the OCF Web site, with a link for compulsive hoarding. The next step is to share the information with the loved one. "You may or may not have a problem with this, but I'm having a problem with it. There is effective treatment out there." Educating themselves, then sharing that education with their loved one is a way to start.

Inside the Mind of a Compulsive Hoarder

These stories of hoarding may seem extreme and isolated, but according to new research from the University of Michigan Health System, hoarding presents a real danger, not only for those who do it but also for their neighbors -- creating fire hazards, as well as unsanitary, unsafe conditions. In addition, death caused by an avalanche of trash can be a true threat. Researchers note that treating hoarding is difficult because people who suffer from it don't recognize it as a problem. According to the OCF an estimated 700,000 to 1.4 million people in the United States are believed to have compulsive hoarding syndrome, a sub-condition of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The OCF defines hoarding as "the acquisition of, and inability to discard, worthless items even though they appear (to others) to have no value …[Hoarders] have symptoms of indecisiveness, procrastination, and avoidance …"

The excerpt below is reprinted with permission by New Harbinger Publications, Inc. from "Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding: Why You Save & How You Can Stop" by Fugen Neziroglu, Ph.D., Jerome Bubrick, Ph.D., Jose A. Yaryua-Tobias, M.D.

Bill had recently retired from his job as an airline consultant, had been married for over 20 years, and was respected by his peers and clients. No one had ever questioned why Bill always preferred to meet clients or friends at restaurants instead of having them over for dinner. Nor did they ever think twice about why his daughter always went over to friends' houses rather than having playdates at home. There was always an excuse as to why the blinds were closed or why the windows were never opened.

Bill came to treatment reluctantly. His wife had told him that she would leave him unless he got treatment for his hoarding. He reported that his house was almost unbearable to live in anymore, but he felt too overwhelmed by the clutter to begin to make any changes. His previous attempts to clean up were unsuccessful, and he became very angry when others would try to help him throw things away.

Bill stated that if you looked hard enough in his living room, you could see the sofa, loveseat, and chair underneath the heaps of papers, plastic bags, and cardboard boxes that were stacked at eye level. Next to the sofa there was a snowblower and underneath the coffee table was a full-size car tire. He had desk drawers filled to capacity with rubber bands, batteries, and paper clips "just in case" he needed them in the future.

The kitchen was not very different. The six-person table was completely overrun by papers, plastic bags, and cardboard boxes. In fact, this was the only place in the entire house that could seat more than one person at a time. Family meals at the dinner table did not exist. Nor was there space for the family to retire to the living room and watch television together.

Bill discussed his extreme difficulty in discarding anything that was sent to the house. The previous year, he was able to cancel five of his 15 magazine subscriptions, which cut down the number of magazines coming into the house. However, the remaining 10 subscriptions, most of which came once a week for over seven years, had dominated both floor and countertop space, rendering the stovetop completely useless. The primary method of cooking was the microwave, but you had to step over boxes and crates to get there safely.

Bill had severe asthma and had no idea how much his symptoms had been exacerbated by the dirt, mold, and fungus that flourished in his house. Before Bill got treatment, he had not vacuumed or dusted anything in over four years. The shower stall in the bathroom had not been cleaned in years and was covered with a black mold that was very dangerous, as people invariably slipped on it. Following the treatment, his asthma was significantly better.

Gloria was a 41-year-old single mother of three children ranging in age from five to 13. She came to therapy for her fear of germs and diseases, a classic kind of OCD. She had a master's degree in special education, but because of the severity of her symptoms, she was able to work only a few days each month as a substitute teacher.

Gloria walked down the hallway of the office like a surgeon on her way to the operating room. Her elbows were out in front, her hands turned inward and just below eye level. Before sitting down, she pulled out one of the hundreds of antibacterial wipes from her purse and proceeded to cleanse the chair.

She stated that she washed her hands up to 50 times a day, often washing up to the elbow. Her fears of contamination started after the birth of her first daughter, when she was 26 years old. Prior to that, she did not recall any symptoms of OCD. She said that she knew her fears of getting sick were irrational but she felt compelled to wash and scrub anyway. Her biggest fear, however, was that her kids would learn from her hypervigilance about germs and live with the same amount of anxiety and fear as she did.

Gloria also had symptoms of compulsive hoarding. She reported that ever since she was a teenager, she'd had great difficulty throwing things away, especially paper products like newspapers, magazines, and mail (including junk mail). However, her hoarding behaviors were complicated by her fear of germs. She organized her clutter by the degree to which she felt the items had been contaminated from the outside world prior to entering the house.

When she came home from work or from doing errands, Gloria would evaluate the level of contamination she brought back to the house. Anything she considered "dirty" or contaminated with germs was wiped down with antibacterial wipes or paper towels before she felt comfortable putting it down inside. Once "decontaminated," the item was placed in a makeshift to-do pile. This pile was a vast area of clutter that spanned from the living room through the kitchen and into the dining room.

Although the clutter in the house was relatively under control, it did significantly interfere with Gloria's daily living. She had to-be-filed papers strewn across the living room floor, including important papers like tax returns and her kids' report cards. Other stacks dominated the sofa and chairs in the living room and could not be moved by anyone but Gloria, because if someone with dirty hands moved the papers, they would need decontamination again. It was if there were land mines in the living room and kitchen that had to be skillfully maneuvered and traversed, and most often the kids would sit on the floor to do homework or watch television.

Gloria sometimes spent hours decontaminating possessions and would be exhausted afterward. At some point in every day, Gloria made a pact with herself that she would relieve her family of the mess and start to put things away. But every time she tried, she would start in one area and get sidetracked into another area, and then into another, until she became overwhelmed and frustrated. She eventually felt that it would be impossible for her to succeed and started to avoid the clutter altogether.

*Note: The stories of Bill and Gloria illustrate how hoarding is manifested differently in different people. Keep in mind that hoarding can affect people in a variety of ways, so don't stop reading or get discouraged if these examples are not exactly similar to your own hoarding behaviors.