No idea if it's on the rise or not because it could just be reporting, but hoarding is a mental disorder no doubt. Watch an episode or two of Hoarders. People are literally breaking down for having to throw away a dirty piece of trash.
I can't think of a single healthy behavior that is not occasionally taken to an unhealthy extreme by people with a disorder.
The term hoarding is problematic because it is lacking a clear line even more than other potentially pathological behaviors, there is absolutely no consensus where having some stuff that you don't exactly use daily ends and pathological hoarding begins. Even alcohol consumption seems clear-cut by comparison. Combined with the smugness of how self-congratulatory "minimalists" will look down on everybody who has slightly different standards than them, and the unfortunate coincidence that disorder (as in chaotic) shares a linguistic token with disorder (as in mental health) it makes it incredibly hard to have a meaningful discussion about the topic.
(I write "minimalist" in quotes because far too many self-identifying minimalists are not minimal at all, they are just eagerly disposing to drive their consumerism to eleven, new and shiny every time)
Problem is, if I want to be a different sex, that will very much interfere with my daily life. The definition does not hold for what we currently accept.
I don't get my psychiatric news from entertainment television. Of course they make these shows as exciting and disturbing as possible to sell ads. Trying to take away anything real from them is a big mistake.
