Is Digital Hoarding a Mental Disorder?數字囤積是精神疾病嗎？

文/伊麗莎白·巴勒莫 譯/莫昕

By Elizabeth Palermo1

Is Digital Hoarding a Mental Disorder?數字囤積是精神疾病嗎？

文/伊麗莎白·巴勒莫 譯/莫昕

ByElizabeth Palermo1

A man who takes thousands of digital pictures weekly and spends hours every day organizing the photos on his computer could have a condition that,until now, has never been described in medical literature. The patient might have “digital hoarding disorder,” according to the authors of a recent report on the man’s case.

[2] The 47-year-old man lives in the Netherlands, and doesn’t only collect digital photos; he collects physical objects, too. He has been diagnosed with tactile hoarding disorder, which means he holds onto objects ranging from old bicycle parts to scraps of useless paper.The clutter fills his Amsterdam apartment and prevents him from inviting anyone over to visit, according to the report, which was published in the journalBMJ Case Reports2網絡期刊（http://casereports.bmj.com），專為醫療從業者和研究者提供常見和罕見病癥在臨床方面的重要信息。.

某男子每周拍攝數千張數碼照片，每日花數小時在電腦上整理照片。迄今為止尚未有醫學文獻描述這種癥狀。據該男子最近的一項病例報告稱，他可能患上了“數字囤積癥”。

[2]這名男子47歲，住在荷蘭，他不光收集數碼照片，還囤積各種物品。他被診斷為患有實物囤積癥，也就是說他收集從舊自行車部件到廢紙片等各類物件。據《英國醫學雜志病例報告》期刊發表的報告稱，他位于阿姆斯特丹的公寓一片狼藉，令他無法邀請別人到家里做客。

[3]不過，這個男人的囤積行為大多發生在數字領域——他在電腦和購買的四個硬盤上，存儲了數萬張照片。

[3] But much of the man’s hoarding occurs in the digital realm—he stores tens of thousands of photographs on his computer, and the four hard drives he has purchased.

[4] His doctors think his tendency to hold onto3hold onto（替別人或更長時間地）保存某物。so many digital files is a problem, according to the report. Dealing with all of these electronic files keeps the man from doing other things,like cleaning his home, going outside or sleeping, they wrote.

[5] “He enjoyed taking the photos.However, the processing and saving of the digital pictures caused suffering and distress,” Dr. Martine van Bennekom,a psychiatry resident at the Academic Medical Center in the Netherlands who treated the man and is the lead author of the report, told Live Science.

[6] The man’s inability to let go of4let go of 放開，松手。digital things—and the fact that this inability affected his life in a negative way—led van Bennekom and her coauthors to suggest that digital hoarding should be “classified as a subtype of hoarding disorder”.

An informal disorder

[7] Right now, digital hoarding isn’t an established condition like hoarding disorder, which is included in the DSM-5, the reference manual that doctors use to diagnose mental disorders. But this distinctly modern kind of hoarding is something that a lot of people are talk-ing about. The pseudo5pseudo假的，虛偽的。condition even has its own Wikipedia page.

[4]該報告稱，他的醫生認為他囤積如此大量數字文件的傾向是一種病。病例報告中寫道，處理所有這些電子文件讓這個男人無法顧及其他事項，如清潔房間、出門或睡覺。

[5]荷蘭學術醫學中心的精神病專家馬丁·范本內科姆是這個男人的治療醫生，也是該報告的主要作者，他告訴生命科學網站：“他喜歡照相。但是，處理和存儲這些數碼照片給他帶來了折磨和痛苦。”

[6]該男子無法擺脫數字產品，因此他的生活受到負面的影響，這一現實令范本內科姆醫生和她的合著者提出建議，將數據囤積“列為囤積癥的一類”。

非正式病癥

[7]目前，數字囤積并不像囤積癥那樣，是一種已經確定的病癥，囤積癥已經列入DSM-5，即醫生用來診斷精神疾病的參考手冊。然而，很多人都在討論這種特殊的現代囤積行為。這種偽病癥甚至擁有自己的維基百科頁面。

[8] In the case report, van Bennekom and her colleagues suggest making digital hoarding an official disorder. They say this would make the disorder easier to detect.

[9] Yet, not all mental health experts agree. Making digital hoarding a disorder would be “premature,” said David Tolin, a clinical psychologist and director of the anxiety disorders center at the Connecticut mental health center, The Institute of Living.

[10] The new case report is based on the experiences of just one person—a person who has tactile hoarding disorder.

[11] It isn’t yet clear whether there are many people who hoard only digital files, Tolin said. And since there isn’t a newspaper-hoarding disorder for people who collect only newspapers, or a clothes-hoarding disorder for people who collect only clothes, it isn’t clear why digital hoarding deserves a special categorization, he added.

[12] And there’s another problem with labeling the hoarding of digital stuff as a mental disorder, Tolin noted. Patients who hoard physical objects, like photographs, are sometimes encouraged by their doctors to go digital. Converting photographs into files gives patients more living space in their cluttered homes, he said.

[8]在該病例報告中，范本內科姆醫生及其同事建議將數字囤積定為正式的疾病。他們說，這會讓這種疾病更容易被診斷。

[9]然而，不是所有的心理健康專家都認同他們的說法。康涅狄格州心理健康中心生活研究所臨床心理學家和焦慮癥中心主任戴維·托林說，將數字囤積定為疾病可能“并不成熟”。

[10]這個新的病例報告只基于一個人的經歷，一個患有實物囤積癥的人。

[11]托林說，目前尚不清楚是否還有許多只囤積數字文件的人。他補充說，既然沒有為那些僅收集報紙或衣物的患者設立報紙囤積癥或衣物囤積癥，那么，為什么要單單為數字囤積癥進行特別分類，其理由并不明確。

[12]托林提到，給囤積數字產品貼上精神疾病的標簽，還有另一個問題。囤積實物（如照片）的患者，有時是受醫生引導而轉向數碼照片的。他說，將照片轉換為數字文件給患者凌亂擁擠的家中帶來更多的生活空間。

[13] If digital hoarding became an official disorder, it’s unclear whether doctors would still want to recommend such measures to patients. This question and many others should be answered before digital hoarding makes its way6make one’s way 前往，前進。into the diagnostic guidebooks, Tolin said.

Digital distress

[14] Tolin said he agrees with van Bennekom that people who feel distressed by their abundance of digital possessions are, in fact, hoarders. Feeling distressed or being impaired by too much stuff is what makes hoarding hoarding.

[15] “Lots of people have quirky behaviors, but we don’t go around calling those disorders,” Tolin said. “If somebody was just hoarding digital objects,but their house was relatively clean,”then they may be impaired by their behavior, but they may also just have a quirk about saving digital stuff, he said.

[13]如果數字囤積成為正式的疾病，那么醫生是否仍想推薦這些措施給患者，就成為疑問。托林說，這個問題及許多其他問題有了答案之后，數字囤積才能正式列入診斷指導手冊。

數字折磨

[14]托林說，他贊同范本內科姆的看法，那些被大量數字信息所折磨的人們事實上就是囤積者。擁有太多東西而感到備受折磨或損害正是囤積癥的特征。

[15]“許多人都有古怪的行為，但我們不會將此稱作疾病。”托林說，“如果某人只是囤積數字內容，而他的房子卻還很干凈”，那么，他們可能受自己的行為損害，但也可能只是有存儲數字內容的怪癖。

[16] The patient in the case report was truly impaired by his digital hoarding,but other people might not be impaired by similar behaviors, said Larry Rosen,a psychology professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

[17] For example, if you have 7,000 unread emails in your inbox, but you don’t give a hoot7not give a hoot絲毫不在乎。, then you’re not a hoarder, said Rosen, whose research focuses on the relationship between mental health and technology.

[18] People who are concerned they may have a problem should ask themselves whether all their virtual stuff is causing them anxiety, he said. Those who have anxiety might find it helpful to make a plan to deal with their digital clutter, or find someone who can help,he said.

[19] But if you’re just a little overwhelmed by the 7,000 unread emails in your inbox, and are concerned about that the time it would take to sort through them all, then Rosen recommends an easy way to reduce that anxiety-inducing number.

[20] “Go on and trick your email system into calling them all ‘read.’ And then it’ll say zero. There goes the stimulus that creates the anxiety,” he said.

[16]加州州立大學多明戈斯山分校心理學教授拉里·羅森說，該病例報告中的患者確實受到其數字囤積行為的負面影響，但其他有類似行為的人可能并不會受到影響。

[17]羅森說，例如，如果你的收件箱中有7000封未讀郵件，但你根本無所謂，那你就不是個囤積者。羅森主要研究心理健康和科技的關系。

[18]他說，那些擔心自己可能有問題的人應該問問自己，是否他們所有的虛擬事物都會導致自己的焦慮。他還說，那些焦慮的人可能會發現，制訂一項計劃來處理他們的大量數字文件，或向別人求助，會有一定的用處。

[19]然而，如果你只是對收件箱里7000封未讀郵件感到有點不知所措，擔心清理這些郵件會花太多時間，羅森推薦了一個簡單的方法來減少導致焦慮的數字。

[20]他說：“去設置你的電子郵件系統，將所有未讀郵件設為‘已讀’。未讀郵件的數量就變為零。那么令你焦慮的源頭就消失了。”

1生命科學網站（www.livescience.com）編輯。

（譯者曾獲第五屆“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽優秀獎）