# Hoarders on A&E tv



## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

I watched an episode of "Hoarders" on A&E tv last week. I think it was on around the same time the Criminal Minds reruns are playing and that is how I stumbled on it.

All I can say is "YEECH" and I feel so much better about the mess of a house that I live in compared to the houses that they showed on this episode. I know they have to find the worst of the worst to make the point, but these were disgusting and yes, my house is cluttered, even dusty and cobwebby, but not containig rotting pumpkins in the living room or expired food in the kitchen and a hallway full of dirty clothes that are walked on instead of picked up.

I only watched one episode but it was enough for me to get the vacuum out and go thru the house.

NOT my fridge, but from the show.


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## Alfer (Aug 7, 2003)

Yeah we watched that episode...it was disgusting and sad all at the same time....these people are extremely mentally ill but nobody really can get them the help they need.


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## coolpenguin (Apr 26, 2004)

Betts- I feel the same way about my house as you do about yours. I saw this show and also a few others like it over the last year and it has really kicked my family in the pants to make a change in our house.


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

Alfer said:


> Yeah we watched that episode...it was disgusting and sad all at the same time....these people are extremely mentally ill but nobody really can get them the help they need.


Yes, that was one of the points that kept getting brought up with the lady that had the rotting pumpkins and the bad food. That they could clean it up and throw things away, but she would be back to the way it was in a few months unless she got help. I did applaude her son who I think called the show, his mom tried to save some stuff from the fridge in a cooler. He made her dump it all out and toss it. She kept saying 'no, it shouldn't be wasted' and it was all expired and stinky. He stood his ground and made her throw it away. I can only hope that he will visit her more often and help her work thru a behavior change.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

I find these shows fascinating. Not sure why... My wife and I are both neatniks.


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## dthmj (Mar 12, 2002)

I'm watching this right now - and it's just unbelievable how these people live. And I thought I was a slob!

The first family they showed though, I think they are just making excuses for being filthy slobs.... won't sweep up the dog hair because he things it will make the dog age? Won't throw away a water bottle because that means he doesn't love his mom??? I could almost accept that if it was just his room (he lives with his parents), but it's the entire house.


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## TeighVaux (May 31, 2005)

This is a difficult show to watch. I think most of these hoarders are just hard wired. 

Like bareyb, I am a neatnik so this is very hard for me to understand. I am the opposite, I will throw away anything once I am done with it (newspapers, magazines, clothes. left overs).

It is sad when children are involved. Also I feel for the poor landlords and neighbors who are collateral damage.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

It's a difficult show for me to watch, but something that's very necessary for me. Hoarding runs in my family...my grandmother, who is still alive, has two homes that look like these or worse on the inside. And I have some serious hoarding tendencies.

So it is HARD to watch, but very helpful.


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## TeighVaux (May 31, 2005)

The show has helped me gain some insight into the mindset of a hoarder. As I said in the earlier post, I am the opposite of a hoarder. I own little that is not something I don't currently use. Expired food or medicine, that goes in the trash the day it expires.

What I hear from the hoarders is that the item "will be useful some day" or "worth something some day" or the item has sentimental value. 

Maybe it's the Asperger's but I am very literal and don't assign sentimental value to items and tend to only see items as functional or not. If there's no current function to an item, I don't want it in my space. So whatever, receptors are turned on high in the hoarder's brain must be turned off in my brain.

A lot of the hoarders on the show don't appear to work for a living. If they do, I wonder what their work space looks like. My work space, well take a guess. In any work place, I would see people that I imagined were hoarders or packrats at home because their cubicles were just chock full of items (over a hundred photos, folders all over the floor, out of date material piled all over).


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## dthmj (Mar 12, 2002)

Interestingly after this show, I was talking to hubby. In the preview for the next episode a woman said "if I can't see it, it doesn't exist". Hubby said that rang very true to him - he felt that way. And all of a sudden things clicked. Our house has always been cluttered. Cleanish, but cluttered, but also not cluttered to the point of these people, or even Clean House (not even remotely). For example, in our living room we have a secretary. Hubby puts his wallet, keys, work ID badge, and change on it. I hate that he does this. I want him to put that stuff away - he wants it out - because if he can't see it, it doesn't exist. So that explains why all of our stuff is out - it never makes it into a cabinet, closet, drawer, etc for very long.


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## Tobashadow (Nov 11, 2006)

My dad's house (parent's divorced when i was young) look's as bad if not worse then what was on that show. It was spotless till he married his current wife which has no cleaning instinct. She was raised with a maid and her ex had a maid also.

There is a narrow area to walk to the middle of the house where they live, eat and sleep in the den and a small narrow walkway to one of the bathrooms where I'm scared to sit on the throne. Most of the time you are walking on clothes and such.

They also have five dog's but i am not getting into that, you figure it out.

Me and my wife and other kids have cleaned the house front to back at least a dozen times through the years and within months it is back the way it was and she is asking for help again. When they die, i hate to say it but it would be better to just let the fire department burn it.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

dthmj said:


> Interestingly after this show, I was talking to hubby. In the preview for the next episode a woman said "if I can't see it, it doesn't exist". Hubby said that rang very true to him - he felt that way. And all of a sudden things clicked. Our house has always been cluttered. Cleanish, but cluttered, but also not cluttered to the point of these people, or even Clean House (not even remotely). For example, in our living room we have a secretary. Hubby puts his wallet, keys, work ID badge, and change on it. I hate that he does this. I want him to put that stuff away - he wants it out - because if he can't see it, it doesn't exist. So that explains why all of our stuff is out - it never makes it into a cabinet, closet, drawer, etc for very long.


I can TOTALLY relate to this. If I have something that I've misplaced, I will immediately think it's gone forever. This drives my husband BATTY.

The good news for us is that I've made a lot of progress in the last year. We have a relatively clean bedroom and a mostly clutter-free living room, with a kitchen that could use an hour or two of work to look clutter-free. Therapy has really helped.

As has this show.


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## scooterboy (Mar 27, 2001)

YCantAngieRead said:


> I can TOTALLY relate to this. If I have something that I've misplaced, I will immediately think it's gone forever. This drives my husband BATTY.


That would drive me batty too. You literally think it's gone forever, just because you misplaced it? I can't wrap my head around that.

That reminds me of a Xmas incident with my mother, who can be quite the drama queen. We were opening gifts in the morning and by the end, each of us had a pile of opened gifts at our feet or next to our chair.

My mother had been given a pair of earrings that she really loved. While picking up her opened gifts, she couldn't find the earrings. Instead of looking though the rest of her gifts until she found the small jewelry box (like any rational person would do), she immediately announces "Someone came in and stole my earrings! Christmas is ruined!"

Yes, she was actually suggesting that a burglar (apparently with insane ninja abilities) came into the room _in front of the entire family_, took her earrings, and vanished with the ill-gotten booty. It makes sense once you remember how much ninjas love nice earrings. Of course, a few minutes of searching turned up the earrings and Christmas was saved.

To this day, whenever my family gets together and some little thing doesn't go as planned, one of us will yell "Christmas is ruined!" and we'll all laugh.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

These shows always make me feel better about my cluttered house. AND make me want to throw crap out. I think I need to set up a season pass so I will declutter/toss crap on a regular basis!


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Love the 'Christmas is ruined' story, Scooterboy! LMAO

I like this show as I have liked similar shows over the last several years, but I sure don't know why. It's tough to watch sometimes and makes me go clean something even if it isn't dirty.

The food hoarding lady - I really hope she got more help with that situation. That was truly vile.

I'm not EVEN a kid person, but that one situation where they broke up and tossed the kid's play house really made me feel bad. That poor kid was beside himself. 

I'm a couple of weeks behind but have an SP so I look forward to catching up.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

Hey. Tell these bass-turds to stay the hell outta my house!!!


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

I'm watching this now and my jaw is on the floor.


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## jones07 (Jan 30, 2001)

I feel sorry for "most" of these people.

Nobody wants to live like that.

Mental disorders must be a awful thing. In my younger days I would yell at these kind of people to just SNAP OUT OF IT DAMINT.

But no more


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## GDG76 (Oct 2, 2000)

My wife says I'm the opposite of a hoarder. I'm a "super-chucker" in that I'd rather throw everything away than store it. 

This show really disturbs me. As the guy said in "I Love You, Man" - this is my nightmare. I just want to get in there and throw everything they own in the dumpster, clean the house, remodel it and slap the people into reality. However, I do realize that they're just at the other end of the spectrum as me. Sometimes I'd like to look at a photo or a kids old toy and feel something more or remember something about it, but it's just a toy or a photo and it's better to just chuck it and not have to worry about keeping it forever.

At least my deficiency makes for easier moves and lack of foreclosures


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

My sister has highly recommended Hoarders to me since our Mom and Grandma both have/had hoarding tendencies, but nowhere near what they have in the show. She and I both worry it will come home to roost with us.

Sis has been very positively affected by the show and feels it's helped her get a handle on her issues in regards to potential hoarding, on the other hand I found it so painful to watch with the piles of filth, I can't even fathom making it through an hour of the show, I'm grossed out and can't watch.

Diane


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

The latest episode was just insane. That poor Woman. It's amazing how similar all these cases are. They seem to want to touch every single thing before it goes in the trash. Positively fascinating. They say they want to keep this stuff for the memories and yet, have you noticed that many of them don't have any pictures on the wall? Where are the pictures of _people_? I would think pictures would be a lot better way to store memories... These people need to buy a photo album or take up scrapbooking... Maybe it's like that one woman said, their stuff IS their "people".

I thought it was classic that the one woman's husband was forced to move his mattress downstairs and then the Hoarder proceeded to pile a bunch of her crap on TOP of it! 

I have to admit I really want to see someone just go in there and just throw it all away. Why do they coddle them so much? It's not like they're killing their children or something for goodness sake. It's just a bunch of junk. Wouldn't it be better to just get it over with?


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

bareyb said:


> The latest episode was just insane. That poor Woman. It's amazing how similar all these cases are. They seem to want to touch every single thing before it goes in the trash. Positively fascinating. They say they want to keep this stuff for the memories and yet, have you noticed that many of them don't have any pictures on the wall? Where are the pictures of _people_? I would think pictures would be a lot better way to store memories... These people need to buy a photo album or take up scrapbooking... Maybe it's like that one woman said, their stuff IS their "people".
> 
> I thought it was classic that the one woman's husband was forced to move his mattress downstairs and then the Hoarder proceeded to pile a bunch of her crap on TOP of it!
> 
> I have to admit I really want to see someone just go in there and just throw it all away. Why do they coddle them so much? It's not like they're killing their children or something for goodness sake. It's just a bunch of junk. Wouldn't it be better to just get it over with?


I feel 100% the same way. What's even more amazing is that all of these people found a mate-someone willing to put up with this nonsense.

Did you see the woman last night freak out when the cleaning woman threw everything away? The woman held up an empty box of soap and said "I didn't say you could throw this away!"


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

spikedavis said:


> I feel 100% the same way. What's even more amazing is that all of these people found a mate-someone willing to put up with this nonsense.
> 
> Did you see the woman last night freak out when the cleaning woman threw everything away? The woman held up an empty box of soap and said "I didn't say you could throw this away!"


It IS odd they manage to find people who will put up with it, I agree. Seems like a really depressing way to live...


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## Enrique (May 15, 2006)

bareyb said:


> I have to admit I really want to see someone just go in there and just throw it all away. Why do they coddle them so much? It's not like they're killing their children or something for goodness sake. It's just a bunch of junk. Wouldn't it be better to just get it over with?


 Because they'll go right back to it when everyone's gone. Just like an drug addict. it doesn't help any if you go to their home and take out all the drugs, they'll just go right back to it when your gone.

They need to be weaned off it, and come to it on their own. If you force them to do what you want It'll Never Work!


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## GDG76 (Oct 2, 2000)

The one woman's "keepsakes" had all the names of her kids on them, but not once did we see the kids.

Very sad that the things are more important than the actual people.


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## d-dub (Mar 8, 2005)

bareyb said:


> It IS odd they manage to find people who will put up with it, I agree. Seems like a really depressing way to live...


Hoarding is a symptom of mental illness. The spouses that put up with it are generally enablers and co-dependents with their own issues, and get some perceived benefit from the relationship. Trying to find some sense or logic to it is destined to fail, because the behavior is irrational.


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

bareyb said:


> I have to admit I really want to see someone just go in there and just throw it all away. Why do they coddle them so much? It's not like they're killing their children or something for goodness sake. It's just a bunch of junk. Wouldn't it be better to just get it over with?


The one girl's mom came in and cleaned earlier in the year I think. She said she cleaned the house, got yelled at by her daughter and then in just a few months the house was back that way. I wish they had more than two days to do this. It seems they are just getting started and making head way and then it's over.

I am a bit of a packrat, not a hoarder and not living in filth like that. I do know a couple that have a house in as bad as shape as some of those and they don't see it. Okay, not the food thing, but the pile of boxes from cereal, speghetti and any other food box, they were saving them for recycling, but never put them out. A pile of cereal boxes 4 ft high. Last year I was helping them clean up an area of thee kitchen and Dan was picking up each item and telling me the story about it. Just like they do on the show. It was amazing and frustrating to watch him do this. I must have interrupted him every few minutes to say 'no, keep or go?'. It took forever to carve out a space for them but we did it.
I will say this, it is much easier to clean someone else's house, then it is your own.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

betts4 said:


> The one girl's mom came in and cleaned earlier in the year I think. She said she cleaned the house, got yelled at by her daughter and then in just a few months the house was back that way.


Whether it's this show or Oprah or other places where this comes up, I have often wondered how quickly the place goes back to its original state after the magic of the TV is gone. I bet the failure rate is high.

I am the neatnik. I recently switched to the online newspaper because I felt guilty about all the newspapers we went through and never used.

When we remodeled recently we went to the 4 foot wide cabinet depth frig because you can see everything and it not stacked so far back you can't even reach it like a traditional fridge. That helped a lot (not completely) with using food before it goes bad.


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## TiVoJedi (Mar 1, 2002)

I am a pack rat and can admit it, but am also a highly motivated 'green' person, so the last few years I have been able to shift my storing tendencies to transforming tendencies. For example I became highly interested in gardening and composting. Instead of hoarding cereal boxes, junk mail, paper bags from fast food restaurants, etc, they now are shredded in a paper shredder and tossed on the compost pile. I actually process whatever new enters the house and start thinking how it can go past its initial usefulness and the compost heap is usually it, but other times I can find alternative uses for broken items. Replaced window screens? no problem.. shade cover for lettuce for cold frame built out of the old steps from the back porch! Amazingly my wife and I are unable to fill the municipal trash can for pickup twice a week. We are lucky if there is even one 13-gallon bag of trash to set out. I feel we are paying too much for trash pickup because there isn't enough trash to usually fill a tall kitchen bag in a week. LOL It is sickening how much packaging people throw away when a small cubic yard area of compost can take care of most of it and the end result is fertile compost to use in a garden to grow your own food. Anyhow the recycle at-home mindset has helped me from saving box after box of packaging and transformed them into something I can use that doesn't make clutter. I haven't seen the show yet, but it sounds interesting and I think I can still be helped because there's not a good at-home recycling answer for everything so some clusters of clutter do still form and eventually get decimated or spread elsewhere. The whole washing clothes and putting them away is one area I need help. I do laundry, but it usually gets dumped onto the guest bedroom futon where I randomly select my clothes to wear for the day. Soiled\used clothes go in the hamper til it gets too full and necessitates a washing, but then after cleaning and joining the heap... well that's the cycle. I can't seem to get motivated to hang and fold clothes that are just going to be worn and cleaned over and over again. If someone can invent a 'hopper' that you just dump clean clothes into and magic hands inside fold the clothes and spit out piles of perfectly folded clothes, you'd have a customer for life and I might even put the clothes away properly.


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## jones07 (Jan 30, 2001)

TiVoJedi said:


> If someone can invent a 'hopper' that you just dump clean clothes into and magic hands inside fold the clothes and spit out piles of perfectly folded clothes, you'd have a customer for life and I might even put the clothes away properly.


+1 
I would give up my DVR for something like that.

I hate folding and ironing clothes and almost never do it.

I think I saw this product on the Jetsons when I was a kid


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

Another +1 for the laundry-hopper-folder idea. That would be heaven as I HATE folding clothes and putting them away. Maybe because I don't have a good space to do it AND I have to haul everything upstairs. 

SP set for this program. I can't wait to see this show AND get started cleaning my own house!


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

It's not the folding of clothes I mind, it's the putting them away. I fold right out of the dryer and obsessive about it, but I hate to take the next step of putting it away. I am not sure why.

I have started rolling my thousands of teeshirts instead of folding them. I saw that on another show and it works well.


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## scooterboy (Mar 27, 2001)

TiVoJedi said:


> I am a pack rat and can admit it, but am also a highly motivated 'green' person, so the last few years I have been able to shift my storing tendencies to transforming tendencies. For example I became highly interested in gardening and composting. Instead of hoarding cereal boxes, junk mail, paper bags from fast food restaurants, etc, they now are shredded in a paper shredder and tossed on the compost pile. I actually process whatever new enters the house and start thinking how it can go past its initial usefulness and the compost heap is usually it, but other times I can find alternative uses for broken items. Replaced window screens? no problem.. shade cover for lettuce for cold frame built out of the old steps from the back porch! Amazingly my wife and I are unable to fill the municipal trash can for pickup twice a week. We are lucky if there is even one 13-gallon bag of trash to set out. I feel we are paying too much for trash pickup because there isn't enough trash to usually fill a tall kitchen bag in a week. LOL It is sickening how much packaging people throw away when a small cubic yard area of compost can take care of most of it and the end result is fertile compost to use in a garden to grow your own food. Anyhow the recycle at-home mindset has helped me from saving box after box of packaging and transformed them into something I can use that doesn't make clutter. I haven't seen the show yet, but it sounds interesting and I think I can still be helped because there's not a good at-home recycling answer for everything so some clusters of clutter do still form and eventually get decimated or spread elsewhere. The whole washing clothes and putting them away is one area I need help. I do laundry, but it usually gets dumped onto the guest bedroom futon where I randomly select my clothes to wear for the day. Soiled\used clothes go in the hamper til it gets too full and necessitates a washing, but then after cleaning and joining the heap... well that's the cycle. I can't seem to get motivated to hang and fold clothes that are just going to be worn and cleaned over and over again. If someone can invent a 'hopper' that you just dump clean clothes into and magic hands inside fold the clothes and spit out piles of perfectly folded clothes, you'd have a customer for life and I might even put the clothes away properly.


Now if we could just get you to stop hoarding your paragraph breaks...


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## TiVoJedi (Mar 1, 2002)

scooterboy said:


> Now if we could just get you to stop hoarding your paragraph breaks...


Haha

I will work on that.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

d-dub said:


> Hoarding is a symptom of mental illness. The spouses that put up with it are generally enablers and co-dependents with their own issues, and get some perceived benefit from the relationship. Trying to find some sense or logic to it is destined to fail, because the behavior is irrational.


After seeing a couple more episodes I tend to agree. At first I thought they were just "packrats" and didn't know how to organize. Perhaps even a bit lazy... But now after seeing how similar they all act, it's clear to me there's a definite and repeatable defect in "the wiring" in their brains. It seems to be related to some type of depression/addiction to me. Like they get the "high" from the act of buying all this stuff, and then get overwhelmed with what to do with it all and just get stuck in their own mess. Unable to move forward. I doubt I'll ever fully understand it, but it sure is a fascinating show.


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## swinca (Jun 19, 2003)

I watched the episode with the divorced lady trying to clean out her house. The synopsis at the end said she finally just gave up and moved out of the house. I don't understand that. If she could walk off and leave it all behind, why couldn't she throw it away, or let someone else throw it away for her? 

I tried watching the next episode with the kid whose hoarding was driving him to suicide, and the older couple taking in all of the abandoned pets, but it was too sad. I had to turn away from it.


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

The one with the cat lady was definitely sad. She thought she was helping these cats, when all she was do was hurting them. They pulled more dead cats out of there than live ones. Very sad.

This show definitely makes you want to tidy up. I'm a bit of a packrat myself, but definitely not a hoarder. You wouldn't know I was a packrat unless you went into my attic or garage. Every other part of my house is relatively tidy and organized. But I will admit that with the exception of my camping gear, just about everything in the attic can be thrown out. I'm just too lazy to get around to doing that. Thankfully it's too full to put more stuff up there, so at least it's not getting worse. The garage is full of tools that get used, but most of them not very often. I wouldn't want to throw any of that out though. I also keep all of my leftover wood from carpentry projects. That _has_ proven to be handy though, as a few times now I've decided to build something and haven't needed to buy anything for it. But it's still a lot of wood.

Part of the problem in my household is that we moved into my grandparent's house after my grandmother passed, to keep it in the family. My grandmother had some hoarding tendencies, and it took us a long time to clean stuff out of the house. It's a lot harder to do when family members are assigning sentimental value to things that they probably haven't seen for decades, and don't want to take themselves. At first we were sensitive to it and kept a lot of stuff, but after a while any time somebody protested us throwing something out, we made them take it. Lo and behold, the number of protests dropped. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of boxes in the attic marked "saved" that nobody's come to pick up. Who am I saving this stuff for? I've been quietly throwing them out in the mean time...

Some people have this strange attachment to sentimental items, and they feel like throwing them out also erases the memory that surrounds it. Myself, I don't really spend a lot of time just looking at objects and reminiscing, so I don't see what the fuss is about. My mother-in-law is pretty bad about this too. She'll send stuff to my wife that has no value or purpose aside from sentimentality, and I know she sent it because my father-in-law probably made her clean out a closet or something.


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## TeighVaux (May 31, 2005)

I do feel for the hoarders because they have a mental illness.

However, am I the only one who feels badly for the landlords and the neighbors? They have rights too. Most of the people on the show appeared to be renters. 

There were two hoarder/landlord cases in the local news in places where I have lived. The housing courts really sided with the hoarders giving them chance after chance. In the meantime, the neighbors' property values declined. They had to live near unsanitary conditions, even sharing common walls. Also the landlords had to sit by and watch their properties ruined. (Usually the hoarders are behind on the rent too.)

The show never seems to interview the landlords or neighbors. If you were a landlord or neighbor, how would you feel?


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

Honestly, we think of our landlord ALL the time when things start getting bad for me. Fortunately, we have a very good landlord.

Our house, granted, has never gotten anywhere near to the point of these houses, though. It's one of those "there but for the grace of God go I" kind of things. I know I'm fighting genetics and my already screwed up brain.

The thing about mental illness is that it's a very selfish set of illnesses, unintentionally. You have no choice but to think only of yourself.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

I haven't watched this show yet, but I know the ones I've seen on Oprah, et al, no one outside the family generally has any idea because the outside looks normal.


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## TeighVaux (May 31, 2005)

When they showed the episode where the father and son lived in that two story rental townhouse apartment that was a disaster (food, vermin, trash), I was thinking of the adjoining neighbors and the property manager.

For that older woman who had the small rental house (Milwaukee?, with all the rotten food), I admit I was thinking just as much of her landlord. I bet he was just a small town guy, maybe only had that house to rent. It said she was "about to be evicted" and I bet the landlord had been fighting for a year to even get it to that point.


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## tewcewl (Dec 18, 2004)

A friend of mine just told me about this program and revealed that his mother has a hoarding problem. They're hoping to confront his mother this weekend. They've been watching this show for ideas.

This discussion also reminds me so much of one of Amazon's most popular topics on their forum.

Linky for anyone who's interested.


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## Alfer (Aug 7, 2003)

sushikitten said:


> I haven't watched this show yet, but I know the ones I've seen on Oprah, et al, no one outside the family generally has any idea because the outside looks normal.


I recall seeing an Oprah a couple years ago where they went to this older couples house and the wife was a hoarder and Oprah and crew went in to do a cleaning/intervention type deal and they took all the stuff out of the house and Oprah had it taken to a huge warehouse to show the family just how bad the hoarding was....the warehouse was HUGE and this lady had accumulated enough stuff to fill it...it was nuts...the lady and family finally broke down when they saw it.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

I just started watching the one with 21yo and his dad and the cat lady. I couldn't watch it and fast forwarded to the end. I am not sure I will be able to watch this show.


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## trnsfrguy (Apr 28, 2005)

sushikitten said:


> I just started watching the one with 21yo and his dad and the cat lady. I couldn't watch it and fast forwarded to the end. I am not sure I will be able to watch this show.


I watched that episode this morning also and I felt that in both cases, these people are pigs more than hoarders.


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

trnsfrguy said:


> I watched that episode this morning also and I felt that in both cases, these people are pigs more than hoarders.


No, definitely not the 21yo guy. His father maybe... but just because he's an alcoholic. the son definitely had some serious anxiety issues when he was cleaning up the place that could only be explained by compulsive behavior.

We have to remember that there is no rational thought process that allows this kind of activity to happen. These people are being driven to do irrational things by irrational fears. So for those of us who don't have this problem, it will never make sense.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

Next week's episode is going to be hard to watch. It's hard enough to deal with these anxieties as an adult, but for a child to go through it...let's just say I know where he's coming from, to a small extent, and it was miserable.


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## evaporated (Nov 20, 2007)

Ugh. I'm watching the episode with the lady who has all the rotting food in her house. I'm so disgusted.

I've never been a hoarder on any level. I'm very much of the mindset that if we're not using it, we don't need it. I go through my pantry and fridge about once a month and throw out tons of stuff that is expired or about to expire.

When R and I moved into our house together, I had stuff from my previous married life, and he'd had stuff from his previous relationship. We stored as much as we could in the garage, and never really gave much thought to how or when we would go through it and get rid of it. When we bought the house we currenly live in, it has 4 bedrooms, one of which was empty for about a year. It became our "Craigslist" room. Everything we knew we wanted to get rid of, and was too big or valuable to dump off at Goodwill, we stuck in there. Things like a surround sound system, TVs, stairclimber, old camcorders, VCRs, etc. We eventually (with my persistance on Craigslist) sold all of it, and made quite a bit of mad money. The Polk system we sold, we got $750 for.

Anyway, the point is, my house is almost ridiculously organized, and I'm never one of those people that thinks, _well maybe one day I'll use this again_. I used to be that way about my clothes, but I've even stopped doing that.

I sincerely hope the people in these shows get the help they need. I couldn't imagine being a member of a family that had to live in that ruin. I especially feel bad for the children who don't seem to know any better.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

After seeing this show...anyone in my close family that may become a hoarder? They get sent away and WE decide what stays/goes - much like they did with the 7yo. If they hate me? So be it. I cannot imagine living like that. I wouldn't be able to last a few days like those family members do. After an hour or two of "but I can use this..." or "this isn't junk..." and I'd be done. My stepdad is a mini-hoarder, but not nearly this bad. His big things are magazines - he has gun magazines from about 20 years ago. I've warned my mom, and she knows it's becoming an issue...but hasn't yet said much about it. I've told her that if it becomes something she can't or doesn't want to handle, I will come deal with it.

Now excuse me while I go throw some crap away.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

sushikitten said:


> After seeing this show...anyone in my close family that may become a hoarder? They get sent away and WE decide what stays/goes - much like they did with the 7yo. If they hate me? So be it. I cannot imagine living like that.
> 
> Now excuse me while I go throw some crap away.


I wish someone would do this with me. We're not hoarders by any means, but we have a garage full of junk that I haven't touched in years that I'm completely and thoroughly overwhelmed by.

Also, this show really makes me worry about the safety of my grandmother. Her house looks exactly like some of these. But she's 86, and she gets all of her stuff at auctions. We can't really tell her to stop going, because it keeps her active and she really enjoys them.

But man. We're going to have two full houses to go through when she passes. And I really wonder how happy she can be in that kind of environment.


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## evaporated (Nov 20, 2007)

YCantAngieRead said:


> I wish someone would do this with me. We're not hoarders by any means, but *we have a garage full of junk that I haven't touched in years that I'm completely and thoroughly overwhelmed by*.
> 
> Also, this show really makes me worry about the safety of my grandmother. Her house looks exactly like some of these. But she's 86, and she gets all of her stuff at auctions. We can't really tell her to stop going, because it keeps her active and she really enjoys them.
> 
> But man. We're going to have two full houses to go through when she passes. And I really wonder how happy she can be in that kind of environment.


I actually do have advice for you on this. Take one hour on a Saturday. Just one hour. Go through what you can in just one hour. Set a timer even! When the timer goes off, walk away. Do this once per week. Eventually, your overwhelming stockpile will dwindle. And the more you do this, the easier it will be. If I lived near you, I'd be happy to help you with it. I'm a master organizaer, probably borderline OCD.


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## GDG76 (Oct 2, 2000)

sushikitten said:


> After seeing this show...anyone in my close family that may become a hoarder? They get sent away and WE decide what stays/goes - much like they did with the 7yo. If they hate me? So be it. I cannot imagine living like that. I wouldn't be able to last a few days like those family members do. After an hour or two of "but I can use this..." or "this isn't junk..." and I'd be done. My stepdad is a mini-hoarder, but not nearly this bad. His big things are magazines - he has gun magazines from about 20 years ago. I've warned my mom, and she knows it's becoming an issue...but hasn't yet said much about it. I've told her that if it becomes something she can't or doesn't want to handle, I will come deal with it.


They'll just collect other crap to fill it back up. Until you solve their issues, it's only going to be a temporary fix.

They basically cleaned everything for the woman who lost her kids and her life still fell apart afterwards.


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## TiVoJedi (Mar 1, 2002)

The timer is a good idea. Thanks! 

My spare bedroom I use as an office\computer room is an eternal mess. I actually spent 2 hours going through old bill statements last night (I don't go paperless on bills because there are times I need a 'hard copy' and you cannot always easily obtain a new digital copy or it just isn't possible like my water company in the dark ages). I organized this stuff by year and biller; putting each statement per biller together in a single envelope for each year. I remove the windows from the extra envelopes and shred them adding the material to my compost bins. It is coming along. Anyone else do this? 

The same room is also the computer dumping ground. I have PCs from 1996 through current running various versions of operating systems in various states of functionality. I really need to do something about those too.


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

sushikitten said:


> After seeing this show...anyone in my close family that may become a hoarder? They get sent away and WE decide what stays/goes - much like they did with the 7yo. If they hate me? So be it. I cannot imagine living like that. I wouldn't be able to last a few days like those family members do. After an hour or two of "but I can use this..." or "this isn't junk..." and I'd be done. My stepdad is a mini-hoarder, but not nearly this bad. His big things are magazines - he has gun magazines from about 20 years ago. I've warned my mom, and she knows it's becoming an issue...but hasn't yet said much about it. I've told her that if it becomes something she can't or doesn't want to handle, I will come deal with it.
> 
> Now excuse me while I go throw some crap away.


If you watch more episodes of this show, particularly one where the hoarder is getting help from a therapist (and not just a professional organizer) you'll see that having the hoarder involved in the cleaning process is pretty important. The reason is that they've developed attachments to these objects, regardless of how irrational it is. They need to be involved so that they can critically evaluate the necessity of each object, and examine where that irrational attachment is coming from. If the room is cleaned up while they're not there, then the chances of them relapsing into the bad hoarding behavior are almost guaranteed. Simply cleaning the place only removes the symptoms of the problem, and not the cause. But the cleaning itself is invaluable in the therapy. It's just painful to watch, and goes much slower with them there.

So far the only hoarders I've seen on the show who've actually gotten better and (supposedly) stayed better have been the ones who work with the therapists.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

flatcurve said:


> If you watch more episodes of this show, particularly one where the hoarder is getting help from a therapist (and not just a professional organizer) you'll see that having the hoarder involved in the cleaning process is pretty important. The reason is that they've developed attachments to these objects, regardless of how irrational it is. They need to be involved so that they can critically evaluate the necessity of each object, and examine where that irrational attachment is coming from. If the room is cleaned up while they're not there, then the chances of them relapsing into the bad hoarding behavior are almost guaranteed. Simply cleaning the place only removes the symptoms of the problem, and not the cause. But the cleaning itself is invaluable in the therapy. It's just painful to watch, and goes much slower with them there.
> 
> So far the only hoarders I've seen on the show who've actually gotten better and (supposedly) stayed better have been the ones who work with the therapists.


Yeah, I know. But it would still feel good to just toss everything.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

flatcurve said:


> .
> 
> So far the only hoarders I've seen on the show who've actually gotten better and (supposedly) stayed better have been the ones who work with the therapists.


I'd be interested in seeing some followup stories to see if they in fact, _have_ gotten better. I'm skeptical.


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

bareyb said:


> I'd be interested in seeing some followup stories to see if they in fact, _have_ gotten better. I'm skeptical.


Me too. I keep picturing myself when I was little, and my mom made me clean up all the toys in my room. It stayed clean for... I dunno... maybe a couple days.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

evaporated said:


> I actually do have advice for you on this. Take one hour on a Saturday. Just one hour. Go through what you can in just one hour. Set a timer even! When the timer goes off, walk away. Do this once per week. Eventually, your overwhelming stockpile will dwindle. And the more you do this, the easier it will be. If I lived near you, I'd be happy to help you with it. I'm a master organizaer, probably borderline OCD.


This is my problem. I've got some OCD, and I can't start and not finish. I'll literally spend days not sleeping to clean an entire home.

I am, however, working on this issue. I have a great therapist.  Our home is so much better than it was even a year ago. We now have a safe home if kids wanted to come over, and it'd take maybe half a day to a full day to fully clean every single space in our house that we live in and use.

It's just that space we don't use. But man, we've come a LONG ways. Our house is so nice to live in now.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

flatcurve said:


> Me too. I keep picturing myself when I was little, and my mom made me clean up all the toys in my room. It stayed clean for... I dunno... maybe a couple days.


Some of these types of things seem all but incurable. I have a gal friend who has Trichotilomania (however it's spelled, it's the one where people are compelled to pull out their own hairs one by one until they are practically bald). She has been to years of Therapy for it, and so far, only temporary improvement at best. I've never seen her NOT in a wig.

She basically told me it's hopeless. She has support groups online and she said virtually nobody ever really gets any long term recovery from it. They either pull the hairs or they go crazy not pulling them. There's never any "peace". I wonder if something like Hoarding falls into the same category? To me it seems like it would be very difficult to treat. The people are basically in a trap. The very thing that brings them the most pleasure is the thing that is causing them the most pain.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

Today's Oprah dealt with this - with people from the show on there. Jennifer and Ron are the first guests (I just started watching the ep) but Oprah said "a lot has happened in their home" since the show was taped. Stay tuned.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

Oh. I never watch Oprah. Wish I'd known that it was going to be on this. I'd like to hear updates.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

Do any of your stations rerun eps at night (ours do). 

It has apparently been a year since the show taped. 

Jill, the woman who hoarded food and had a house filled with rotting food...saw the episode and started to make changes. Got herself into treatment.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

About a month ago, Ron and Jennifer split up and Jennifer moved out of the house and has her own place. Ron is still in the house. Jennifer seems to be okay with not shopping and bringing things into the house. Ron has kept the house clean - it's still cluttered, but not nearly like it was.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

Take the Hoarding Assessment Quiz at Oprah.com.

I scored minimal to very mild. Phew.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

sushikitten said:


> Take the Hoarding Assessment Quiz at Oprah.com.
> 
> I scored minimal to very mild. Phew.


I scored a "2". I guess don't "need to worry about it". 



> Clutter score: 0
> 
> Difficulty Discarding score: 0
> 
> ...


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

Needless to say, I scored higher than I'm comfortable with. But I do fall solidly into the moderate.

The good part of all this is that four or five years ago, I'd have scored much, much higher.


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

bareyb said:


> Some of these types of things seem all but incurable. I have a gal friend who has Trichotilomania (however it's spelled, it's the one where people are compelled to pull out their own hairs one by one until they are practically bald). She has been to years of Therapy for it, and so far, only temporary improvement at best. I've never seen her NOT in a wig.
> 
> She basically told me it's hopeless. She has support groups online and she said virtually nobody ever really gets any long term recovery from it. They either pull the hairs or they go crazy not pulling them. There's never any "peace". I wonder if something like Hoarding falls into the same category? To me it seems like it would be very difficult to treat. The people are basically in a trap. The very thing that brings them the most pleasure is the thing that is causing them the most pain.


This whole discussion actually piqued my interest about it and I was browsing some information online about compulsive hoarding last night. Basically it looks like it's either extremely difficult, or impossible to "cure" it. i.e. a person who is a compulsive hoarder will always have the impulses to hoard. If they get treatment, there is at least some hope of controlling and managing those impulses. Looks like treatment is a combination of certain anti-depressants and impulse control medications along with therapy.

That doesn't mean that people can't have long-term relief from the disorder though. They just need to stay on top of it. If they're actually motivated to make the change, that's like 90% of the battle right there. I truly feel for the people on the show who can't even admit their problem when it's so obvious. They have a serious struggle ahead.


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## evaporated (Nov 20, 2007)

Here's my score. Not shocking at all.

Clutter score: 0

Difficulty Discarding score: 0

Acquiring score: 2


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

I got 4, 2 & 2... but I was including my garage when answering those questions, because the garage also has a workshop and den in it and I consider it "living space"

without it, I'd probably score 1s and 0s.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

sharkster said:


> The food hoarding lady - I really hope she got more help with that situation. That was truly vile.


I finally saw the episode with Jill and the rotting pumpkins last night and . . . ugh. There are no words.

It was much worse than I thought. When the professional organizer had to run out of the house because he was getting sick, I literally got sick too. 

Then I opened my fridge and threw some old stuff out. Not _that_ old, but I don't want to keep anything past the "sell by" date at all. So disgusting.


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## Alfer (Aug 7, 2003)

I'm a 1-3-1


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

Magnolia88 said:


> I finally saw the episode with Jill and the rotting pumpkins last night and . . . ugh. There are no words.
> 
> It was much worse than I thought. When the professional organizer had to run out of the house because he was getting sick, I literally got sick too.
> 
> Then I opened my fridge and threw some old stuff out. Not _that_ old, but I don't want to keep anything past the "sell by" date at all. So disgusting.


Yeah, that episode in particular was disturbing. It makes me wonder what her childhood was like, and if she was forced to go without food.

To be to that level where you're keeping rotting food? That's just really, really sad. I feel really terrible for those folks.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

Did anyone see the new episode with Augustine of the missing teeth?

I think she represents a new low. Ugh. Imho, she is seriously mentally ill and her problems go far beyond hoarding. Even her daughter seemed to recognize that, but it's not clear that Augustine is getting the serious help she needs, way beyond just cleaning the house. (I thought it should be bulldozed or burned, because a mere cleaning could not possibly cure that house.)

And her son Jason also seemed to realize that his mother was mentally ill when he said, "she used to be a human being but I don't even know what's in there anymore." So sad.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

Magnolia88 said:


> Did anyone see the new episode with Augustine of the missing teeth?
> 
> I think she represents a new low. Ugh. Imho, she is seriously mentally ill and her problems go far beyond hoarding. Even her daughter seemed to recognize that, but it's not clear that Augustine is getting the serious help she needs, way beyond just cleaning the house. (I thought it should be bulldozed or burned, because a mere cleaning could not possibly cure that house.)
> 
> And her son Jason also seemed to realize that his mother was mentally ill when he said, "she used to be a human being but I don't even know what's in there anymore." So sad.


I made the same comments to my husband. We, too, thought the house would just be bulldozed.

Yeah. She's clearly in mental hell. Jason did mention that she was getting follow-up care, so I'm hopeful maybe they can help her.

Clearly, she's been suffering from a major depression for many years. It does everything that she was showing-you stop taking care of yourself, you cease to become the person you once were to friends and family, etc.

I really think this, like Intervention, is an important show to help raise awareness of what clearly is a very isolating and painful illness.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

YCantAngieRead said:


> Clearly, she's been suffering from a major depression for many years. It does everything that she was showing-you stop taking care of yourself, you cease to become the person you once were to friends and family, etc.


Yeah, clearly depression is at least part of it. As her daughter said, she just didn't care about anyone or anything.

But it seemed to go far beyond depression even. She had her son taken away from her and did absolutely nothing about the situation to get him back. I had a hard time understanding that. Other people in previous episodes have had their children removed and then seem upset about it, and start trying to make some changes in their house so they can get the kids back. But this woman didn't seem to care at all and was just "eh."

Her son had seemed to emotionally remove himself from the situation years ago, when he realized that his mother didn't care about him like a mother is supposed to care about a child and probably never will. And weirdly, I admired him for being able to do that because it seems like he has built a life for himself, while his sister cries and agonizes constantly over the situation.


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

This was a sad episode. I honestly don't think the woman can be trusted to live on her own. The condition of the house was far beyond gone, and I can't believe that they were making repairs.


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## dowalker (Sep 29, 2002)

From where we spent Thanksgiving.
Wonder how we get the show to pick this person


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## maggie2101 (Feb 22, 2003)

dowalker said:


> View attachment 12279
> 
> 
> View attachment 12280
> ...


ACK!  Neither looks like they would stay closed.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

flatcurve said:


> This was a sad episode. I honestly don't think the woman can be trusted to live on her own.


I thought the same thing, that she needed someone to take care of her. That she probably should be declared incompetent because she simply is unable, or unwilling, to take care of herself in the most basic way.

I don't know how she managed to do the grocery shopping and eat enough to keep living for so many years, because she had given up on doing everything else that a person does to live.

Didn't she say that she had no _water_? For years? Or was it just no _hot_ water? Either way, I don't even want to think about that bathroom. And how she, uh, used it.


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## dowalker (Sep 29, 2002)

maggie2101 said:


> ACK!  Neither looks like they would stay closed.


Tape!


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## The Flush (Aug 3, 2005)

dowalker said:


> View attachment 12279
> 
> 
> View attachment 12280
> ...


I don't remember seeing you at my parents house on Thanksgiving.

They use a bungie cord to keep the freezer closed.


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## Philosofy (Feb 21, 2000)

At my old job, I used to drive by a place that started with a pile of junk in the driveway. Eventually, the driveway got filled: about three feet deep with junk. Then it spilled over into the yard. This is over a span of about five years. Then one time I drove by and it was all gone: including the house! It had been leveled.


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## TanyaS (Jun 2, 2007)

Augustine's episode was one of the saddest yet. Not just the depths of filth, but seeing the emotional toll her illness extracted on her son. Clearly her mother had had mental issues also. The after of Augustine's house was unrecognizable. The first half of the show I kept thinking it would be better to simply burn the house to the ground in a controlled burn, except I would be concerned about all the air pollution and toxins. I hope her children manage to develop healthy relationships in their own families.

These shows are interesting as to the issue of self-determination. When should society force people to clean up their own property (assuming they are property owners) versus letting one who chooses to live in squalor do so? 

Some of these people, I imagine, would end up in homeless shelters or living on the streets if they were evicted from their homes. It doesn't seem like there is a good answer to this mental illness' manifestation if therapy doesn't help. Let someone live in filth, have them live on the street, intitutionalize them, continually throw away their belongings against their wishes - no answer seems right.

I am looking forward to a "where are they now" type episode in the future.

I am nowhere near a hoarder myself, but I can't watch an episode without getting a burning desire to clean out a closet or give a bunch of stuff to Goodwill.


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## saturn639 (Dec 3, 2009)

I saw a commercial for this show the other day and promptly watched all five episodes available for streaming at A&E's website. The show is strangely addicting. Although after watching it, I felt a strong compulsion to really scrub my house.


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## sooperkool (Mar 18, 2009)

dowalker said:


> View attachment 12279
> 
> 
> View attachment 12280
> ...


Sorry, but i would have left. I can't eat or sleep around stuff like that.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

I just watched the "Augustine" episode on aetv.com. I had never seen this show before, but I will have to catch up with the other episodes there. Riveting stuff.

And I agree, she clearly has issues beyond hoarding. Just the fact that she was blaming everybody else for any issues, and that she could barely say "thank you" to anyone. I teared up when the crew brought in the chair they had pitched in for - it seemed to break through Augustine's wall for a little bit.

Did they ever mention where the father of the children were? Much of what was going on in this family seemed to be rooted in a complete lack of love.

In the end, when Jason said that he thought his mom would just start filling up the house with junk again, it was just depressing. I hoped for some bright spot in all of this, but there wasn't much. What a sad, sad existence.

My guess is that Augustine's blaming everyone else and not taking responsibility is the only coping mechanism she has at this point (that point was probably passed many years ago though). To accept that she has created this life for herself and the effect it has had on her family and others is probably just too much to bear. Combine this with the hoarding and that's a recipe for disaster...


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

TanyaS said:


> These shows are interesting as to the issue of self-determination. When should society force people to clean up their own property (assuming they are property owners) versus letting one who chooses to live in squalor do so?


When it becomes a public health hazard, which Augustine's house definitely was. Even though the mess was mostly contained inside, it still creates a haven for vermin who can then spread to neighboring properties. Additionally, it's a massive fire hazard. There is so much fuel in these hoarder homes that if they went up, they'd probably be impossible to put out.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

The last episode I watched a little bit of at work, but was Augustine the one who refused to throw out old food even if it was rotting? That had to be the grossest (and not speaking of money either) episode I ever saw. Even more than the crazy cat lady episode who was living with dead kitties underneath the filth.

My job makes being around dead bodies necessary, but when she pulled that vegetable crisper out of the fridge and there was thick layer of ooze at the bottom, *and then decided to salvage some of the packaged foods out of same crisper for later consumption*, even though I was not present I wanted to hurl like that one guy ended up doing.

I'm surprised her landlord didn't kick her out earlier. Much, much earlier. Although it was an older house, it appeared to have had a nice remodel at one time, including a kitchen with fairly recent cabinetry and appliances.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

RonDawg said:


> The last episode I watched a little bit of at work, but was Augustine the one who refused to throw out old food even if it was rotting? That had to be the grossest (and not speaking of money either) episode I ever saw.


The one with the rotting pumpkins? That was Jill.

I thought Jill's house was the most disgusting ever. Until Augustine.

Augustine's house was so bad and her issues so serious, she's the first hoarder to get the whole hour of the show to herself. (Afaik.) I wish they would do more shows on just one person, rather than splitting it into two. I am always left with so many questions and want to see more.

I don't understand why this show is so compelling and addicting.  I guess because I have relatives with some of these issues, and a bit of it myself (stuff that I've inherited that I have a hard time parting with, even though it just sits in my basement), and I'm trying to understand it and how to fight it.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

It IS compelling and I don't know why either. I just watched Augustine for the 2nd time. In my case, I think it's because it's so _anti-me_ that I find it fascinating. Augustine was definitely dealing with more than just classic Hoarding. She seemed to let the stuff out the door much easier than any of the others. She didn't seem to need to check every single item to the same degree. It actually got _done_. Which is rare I think.

I think her depression was the overriding factor in her case. It took her tendency to hoard and sprinkled Miracle Grow on it. She had such a "blunt affect" it was as though she was just numb. She absolutely didn't care. About anything. Her poor kids probably feel so conflicted. She told her daughter she didn't love her. I could never imagine a scenario where I could bring myself to tell my child that. The thing is, I believed her. She really didn't seem to be able to feel _anything_.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

That's what happens after years and years of a major depression. You just become numb to everything.

I really felt bad for those guys who were cleaning out her house. They were doing something so good for her, and she could barely muster a thank you. That part was hard to watch.


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

RonDawg said:


> My job makes being around dead bodies necessary, but when she pulled that vegetable crisper out of the fridge and there was thick layer of ooze at the bottom, *and then decided to salvage some of the packaged foods out of same crisper for later consumption*, even though I was not present I wanted to hurl like that one guy ended up doing.


This is exactly what I was gonna post. I actually gagged watching that scene and couldn't believe she was trying to solve it. Me and her son were on the same page... She's like "it's perfectly good milk!!!". That was one of the worse cases I've seen. She had ricotta cheese that expired in 2007 and wanted to keep it because it "wasn't puffed out"... HUH? She was like that with everything. I think even the therapist was overwhelmed.

I actually 1/2 understand because I went without food when I was younger and now I tend to not be able to deal with hunger at all. I eat the minute I'm hungry or soon after or I get the shakes. But hers manifested in a totally sick way. Keeping yogurt for a year because you got it on sale?



> Even more than the crazy cat lady episode who was living with dead kitties underneath the filth.


I think that might be the one thats worse than the food lady. She's like "I think I have about 20 cats" and they ended up counting close to 50 I think it was, and that's before they started pulling out dozens of bodies that were completely decomposed under the junk. That blew my mind, that someone could live not only with all that trash and crap everywhere, but with that smell.

Glad to see I'm not the only one oddly fascinated with this show.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

I was just shocked that cat lady wasn't in more trouble for all the dead cats.


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## TAsunder (Aug 6, 2003)

This show is great. It's so affecting that I believe myself to be a hoarder for an hour or so after watching. A few days ago after watching a re-run I declared myself a hoarder because of some magazines I had saved for a plane trip - I discarded them obviously. After this one, I took it to a whole new level and for the briefest of moments believed myself to be a hoarder because of how messy and cluttered my recycling bin was. Heh.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

I was visiting the Television Without Pity forums and Jason, Augustine's son, has been answering questions there and on the A&E forums about his mother. Everybody seems to have a lot of questions about Augustine.

She is getting aftercare therapy courtesy of the show, but he's not that optimistic she will make any serious permanent changes.

_ETA:_  Oh, and apparently A&E takes some dramatic license, no surprise. A woman named Chris appearing in an upcoming episode says that her episode description says she is "facing eviction" when in reality, she owns her home and isn't going anywhere. Jason also says he was described as "filled with shame and resentment" about Augustine when that isn't true either.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

I caught an episode tonight with "Judi" of Maryland and "Gail" of Oklahoma.

One thing that struck me about both was that they had some commonality other than messy homes and mental illness. Familial difficulties seem to exacerbate their issues: Judi probably resents her adult daughter living on the opposite side of the country, and Gail clearly is still in mourning over the death of her parents, themselves packrats. It was also sad to see that Gail's son would rather face insurgents in Iraq than confront his own mother over her mental illness.

Judi's episode was probably the saddest I've seen. Her home has been so badly damaged by her hoarding that it is little more than fire department practice, seriously affecting its sale which her daughter was hoping would finance her mother's future. She could have used that money too as she has medical issues (which along with the hoarding almost cost her life) and she will need long-term supervised care. The ending said that she only cleared $5k from the sale of her property, and after expenses are deducted she will only clear a paltry $68 every month.

Gail's was actually quite inspiring. Although the damage to her home was almost as extensive as that of Judi's (her goats literally ATE their way into some of the rooms) she seemed to have the greatest progress of any that I have seen so far. She offered almost no resistance and even threw away two items from her childhood that I wouldn't have a problem with her keeping (well maybe not that gross teddybear), but I guess she felt that if she held on to them, she could never overcome her hoarding tendencies. Hopefully Gail will be as successful in mending her relationship with her son.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

Anyone else still watching this?

I saw the episode with the family living outside in a tent in the cold wintertime because of a bedbug infestation, with four very young kids. That one made me angrier than Augustine perhaps, because the father didn't seem mentally ill, just oblivious and in denial about how awful his behavior was to his wife and children.

And they are a sixty something couple married 30 years, but they have a three year old?  I thought the little ones were grandkids at first. She seemed close to him in age, but I can't imagine they would have been allowed to adopt with the house looking like that, so they must be biological kids. She must be much younger than him (he was 62 iirc), but if she's been married 30 years, she can't be all that young. In any event, I felt so bad for those poor kids.


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## YCantAngieRead (Nov 5, 2003)

Magnolia88 said:


> Anyone else still watching this?
> 
> I saw the episode with the family living outside in a tent in the cold wintertime because of a bedbug infestation, with four very young kids. That one made me angrier than Augustine perhaps, because the father didn't seem mentally ill, just oblivious and in denial about how awful his behavior was to his wife and children.
> 
> And they are a sixty something couple married 30 years, but they have a three year old?  I thought the little ones were grandkids at first. She seemed close to him in age, but I can't imagine they would have been allowed to adopt with the house looking like that, so they must be biological kids. She must be much younger than him (he was 62 iirc), but if she's been married 30 years, she can't be all that young. In any event, I felt so bad for those poor kids.


Yeah. I was confused by all that as well.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

Magnolia88 said:


> I saw the episode with the family living outside in a tent in the cold wintertime because of a bedbug infestation, with four very young kids. That one made me angrier than Augustine perhaps, because the father didn't seem mentally ill, just oblivious and in denial about how awful his behavior was to his wife and children.
> 
> And they are a sixty something couple married 30 years, but they have a three year old?  I thought the little ones were grandkids at first. She seemed close to him in age, but I can't imagine they would have been allowed to adopt with the house looking like that, so they must be biological kids. She must be much younger than him (he was 62 iirc), but if she's been married 30 years, she can't be all that young. In any event, I felt so bad for those poor kids.


I was wondering the same thing. There was one adult woman who was interviewed who said she was the man's daughter-in-law, so I presume he has an adult son who didn't want to appear on TV. There could be more adult children as well, who also didn't want to be filmed.

For all we know they could be a messier version of the Duggars 

I saw the Augustine episode finally, and while she frustrated the heck out of me, I thought the retired veterinarian was a more difficult case, although his home was not nearly as bad. He resisted the entire way, more so than Augustine IMHO. And it didn't help that he and his "friend"/cousin were butting heads the entire time.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

RonDawg said:


> I was wondering the same thing. There was one adult woman who was interviewed who said she was the man's daughter-in-law, so I presume he has an adult son who didn't want to appear on TV. There could be more adult children as well, who also didn't want to be filmed.


The adult son was also filmed, briefly, in one of the talking head bits. IIRC, he said he was 26 or so. He just didn't appear as much as the daughter in law, who was presumably his wife, although it wasn't clear.

If they were both so concerned about the little kids, I didn't understand why they didn't take them in. I would rather my siblings slept on sleeping bags on the floor of my living room rather than sleep in a tent out in the cold. I'd be fighting my nutty dad about it if necessary. He can sleep in a tent if he wants, but making the little kids do it is child abuse imho. I guess they (the son and DIL) were tired of arguing with dad but I'd have been more aggressively trying to help the kids.

With all the episodes involving CPS coming to take the kids away (seems like a lot of them lately), it's hard to understand how the kids were allowed to sleep in tents without being taken away. They got lucky they didn't have nosy neighbors calling in. (And I don't mean "nosy" in a derogatory sense because if I knew kids were sleeping in tents next door I'd be calling somebody about it.)


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## Philosofy (Feb 21, 2000)

My dad grew up in an orphanage because his mom got Lou Gherirg's disease, and his brothers (20 and 26 years older) didn't want him.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

I am watching the Augustine episode now. 

Oh.

My.

God.

I thought I had seen some horrid things in past episodes, but this one takes the cake.

And I agree, why bother even trying to clean it--just doze the entire thing.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

I have a pretty good understanding of the psychological aspect of much of this, but I'm having a hard time understanding the hoarding of trash. I'm not talking about junk and stuff that most people would get rid of, I'm talking actual garbage...like disposable food containers, empty cans and bottles, paper trash. And, OMG, don't even get me started on the lady who had to strap herself to the portapotty to sleep at night and used adult diapers during the day. She didn't even throw out the used diapers and they were in huge piles around the house. 

I'm really working hard on understanding that particular part of the hoarding mentality.

Last week's show had a lady who told about how her father burned all her stuff and I really related to that. When I was growing up my mother would make any toys that we loved 'disappear' when we were at school. I grew up with a 'nobody can take any of my stuff away from me' mentality. Fortunately, that never turned into a problematic level of hoarding. But to this day there are things that I don't want to let go of. All that said, I cannot STAND clutter, so I guess that kept me from going over the edge.


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## d-dub (Mar 8, 2005)

Some aspects of hoarding are clearly related to traumatic incidents, especially if they happen early in life.

For other people, hoarding is simply the result of mental illness, and there is just no making sense out of it. They behave that way because they're not rational, there's nothing more to understand.

I've heard interviews with hoarders, and when asked to explain why they won't let go og things like empty salad dressing bottles or fast food containers, they will come up with the wildest rationalizations to explain how imperative it is that they keep them. I'm sure that in reality, there is no conscious thought process when they dump more stuff on the pile. The story they tell is made up on the spot, because they have no other explanation.


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

Magnolia88 said:


> Oh, and apparently A&E takes some dramatic license, no surprise. A woman named Chris appearing in an upcoming episode says that her episode description says she is "facing eviction" when in reality, she owns her home and isn't going anywhere.


I could be that the Board of Health was going to condemn her home as "unfit for habitation", or she could live in a development that has rules about cleanliness. In each of those cases she would be "facing eviction".


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

d-dub said:


> I've heard interviews with hoarders, and when asked to explain why they won't let go og things like empty salad dressing bottles or fast food containers, they will come up with the wildest rationalizations to explain how imperative it is that they keep them. I'm sure that in reality, there is no conscious thought process when they dump more stuff on the pile. The story they tell is made up on the spot, because they have no other explanation.


I don't think they are necessarily made up. I've dealt with enough mentally ill people in my line of work to know that they truly believe in their rationalizations, no matter how bizarre they are.

The young guy who was living with his alcoholic father had the most bizarre rationalization about his hoarding: he thought that vacuuming up dog hair meant his dog was going to die.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

RonDawg said:


> I don't think they are necessarily made up. I've dealt with enough mentally ill people in my line of work to know that they truly believe in their rationalizations, no matter how bizarre they are.
> 
> The young guy who was living with his alcoholic father had the most bizarre rationalization about his hoarding: he thought that vacuuming up dog hair meant his dog was going to die.


This is my observation as well. A good example was the one woman who was saving a particular type of fruit jar. I think she was going to put home made Soup in it or something. Here was the train of thought that was her rationalization for keeping these Jars.

1. These jars would be perfect for Soup!

2. If I throw this away, I can never buy another Jar like it, because I already had this one for free and threw it away and that would be wasteful.

3. If I don't keep these Jars, I will never make Soup and thus, my dream will die.

The saddest part of all was that she had NEVER ONCE in her life ever made home made soup AND she had a zillion OTHER Jars that she could easily have put the soup in had she ever actually made any. It doesn't have to be THAT jar, but in her mind it DOES... Or the dream will die.... There's almost a crazy kind of logic in there when you hear them tell it.


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## justapixel (Sep 27, 2001)

I've been watching this show from the beginning.

I have sympathy for people mentally ill, of course, but keeping sh*t, old diapers, and dead animals is beyond my ability to be sympathetic and moves into the realm of freak show. Can you imagine how those places smell? How you can claim to love cats and then when your house is dug out finding flattened mummified ones is just beyond me. Living with clutter is bad - living with filth is something else. It's a mental illness I don't understand.

However, my real sympathies is with the children forced to live like that. I have no idea why any of those kids are allowed to stay - it is not better in all cases to keep a family together. The family who had bugs and lived outside in the tent - that kid was so sad and well on the way to mental illness himself. He's maladjusted to normal life, and unless he gets intensive therapy, he'll stay that way - and with that family influence, I think it's a lost cause. He needs to be somewhere else, and I feel really sad for him.

Sometimes I get annoyed because my husband wants to keep stuff like paperbags, rubber bands and cardboard boxes. It's weird but I just go through and throw it all away once a month or so. He doesn't have a problem with me chucking it but he does continue to collect, saying it might be "useful." (Um, hello, if you need a box for mailing you can go to the store and buy one, you don't need to save ones you get in the mail.) But even then, they have a place in our house, they aren't lying around so that we can't get to the bathroom or whatever. It looks like a lot of those people just throw garbage everywhere. Even the retired vet who collected stuff - he had a nice area built to display his collection (beer cans) and he STILL didn't use it - he preferred having them lying around and then when they put them all up - he said he was going to take them down. 

Years ago I saw a play about hoarders who died in their house and it took a while to get them out. This was in the 1940s and they removed tons of stuff from their house. It was these people: http://unclutterer.com/2007/04/26/the-collyer-brothers-a-study-in-compulsive-hoarding/

Well, you can tell I'm not a hoarder. I tend to be disorganized like many of us ADD people. I figured out I'm a visual organizer - if paper stuff is tucked away in cabinets and drawers I find it harder to put away. If you see my desk at work, it won't be spotless because my files are stacked on graduating organizers where I can reach them. But, I clean it nightly and tuck things back so the morning I have a fresh work area.

Open files and stacking files makes it easier for me to put stuff away. there is a book on your organizational style and that's how I figured out what I am. So, many things are put away but not behind drawers otherwise I'll leave them lying out.

I'm not a keeper of junk though - when I'm done with it, away it goes. I wish my husband was a bit more like me - he's got that depression-era "maybe it's useful thing" but he's not like these hoarder people and I keep it in check.

Angie, I'm glad now that you are pregnant you have a handle on your tendancy. It's no way to raise a kid, in a house like that. I know yours never was like that and I also think knowing it's abnormal and fighting against it is half the battle. :up:


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

Did anybody catch the Janet (the police widow) and Christina (former psychologist) episode?

Christina seemed to be almost as difficult as Augustine, though her house was not nearly as bad. I'm not surprised about her resistance to therapy, since that's what she used to do. I was a bit surprised that, considering her former line of work, she didn't start to recognize her own symptoms of OCD much sooner.

Something at the very beginning made me take notice: she said that when she was in Germany helping soldiers who participated in Afghanistan and Iraq deal with their PTSD, that she was "betrayed" and ending up losing both her job and her credentials. Getting fired is one thing, but to lose your credentials means she had to have engaged in some pretty serious behavior.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

RonDawg said:


> Did anybody catch the Janet (the police widow) and Christina (former psychologist) episode?
> 
> Christina seemed to be almost as difficult as Augustine, though her house was not nearly as bad. I'm not surprised about her resistance to therapy, since that's what she used to do. I was a bit surprised that, considering her former line of work, she didn't start to recognize her own symptoms of OCD much sooner.
> 
> Something at the very beginning made me take notice: she said that when she was in Germany helping soldiers who participated in Afghanistan and Iraq deal with their PTSD, that she was "betrayed" and ending up losing both her job and her credentials. Getting fired is one thing, but to lose your credentials means she had to have engaged in some pretty serious behavior.


We were thinking maybe she was already a Hoarder or had the tendencies long before she became a Psychologist. She may have even become one in order to try and understand her own problems.

I wonder what she did that got her stripped of her credentials? That kind of thing is usually for serious ethics violations. I can't imagine they'd yank her whole profession just for being a hoarder would they? Perhaps if you are mentally ill yourself you can't have a psychologist credential? That definitely stuck in my head.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

bareyb said:


> I wonder what she did that got her stripped of her credentials? That kind of thing is usually for serious ethics violations. I can't imagine they'd yank her whole profession just for being a hoarder would they? Perhaps if you are mentally ill yourself you can't have a psychologist credential? That definitely stuck in my head.


My gut instinct is that she might have engaged in an improper (read: sexual) relationship with at least one of her patients, who ended up reporting her for some reason.

Of course that is just my opinion and I have absolutely no proof of it.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

RonDawg said:


> My gut instinct is that she might have engaged in an improper (read: sexual) relationship with at least one of her patients, who ended up reporting her for some reason.
> 
> Of course that is just my opinion and* I have absolutely no proof of it*.


Me either... But it would sure explain the way she worded it...


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## TeighVaux (May 31, 2005)

As far as Christina (the psychologist with the 12 year old), did I miss mention of where the girl's father is? I was wondering why her father doesn't take her out of the situation. 

I thought it interesting that both women's front yards were immaculate. So they can keep the front yards pristine because they don't want to attract attention from the authorities? Made me wonder how much of a choice it is to hoard or not hoard.

On other episodes, it seems they will do the absolute minimum when they need to (keep front areas clean, clean up just enough to get CPS off their backs).

Interesting clinical philosophies between Intervention (which precedes Hoarders) and Hoarders. On Intervention, the families and the interventionist are taking a zero tolerance approach to the behavior to the point of cutting them off if they continue. On Hoarders, it seems like too much control and tolerance is still being granted to the hoarder despite the destructive nature of their behavior.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

TeighVaux said:


> As far as Christina (the psychologist with the 12 year old), did I miss mention of where the girl's father is? I was wondering why her father doesn't take her out of the situation.


There was no mention of her father at all. There was a male interviewed that identified himself as an ex-boyfriend, but from what he said their relationship happened long after the daughter was born.

That's one of the reasons why I surmise she lost her credentials by having an inappropriate relationship with a patient. She struck me as being very "relationship-needy" for lack of a better term.



> I thought it interesting that both women's front yards were immaculate. So they can keep the front yards pristine because they don't want to attract attention from the authorities? Made me wonder how much of a choice it is to hoard or not hoard.


That is one reason. Janet (police widow) was also extremely ashamed of what she had created, and even said she was glad the cleanup crew came during a weekday, because she knew her neighbors would all be at work.

In Janet's case, she always had a hoarding tendency. Her oldest daughter said her father used to pay her to clean the house, only to have her mother get mad at her and retrieve stuff from the trash. Her husband's death just pushed her over the edge.



> Interesting clinical philosophies between Intervention (which precedes Hoarders) and Hoarders. On Intervention, the families and the interventionist are taking a zero tolerance approach to the behavior to the point of cutting them off if they continue. On Hoarders, it seems like too much control and tolerance is still being granted to the hoarder despite the destructive nature of their behavior.


I think the reason for that is they want the hoarder to see things differently, and want to agree to get rid of the stuff. As mentioned in one episode, if someone just cleaned out their homes without their permission, the underlying issue won't be solved and will re-occur. I will go even further than that and say that such drastic action would cause resentment in the hoarder and make them even more resistant to future treatment.

In the case of substance abusers, time is very critical because their health is in much more peril than with hoarding. The feeling here is to force them into rehab through overwhelming family/peer pressure, even though the risk of a relapse is higher than if they asked for the help themselves, simply because their next "fix" could very well kill them.


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## TeighVaux (May 31, 2005)

Those are great points, Ron Dawg. True that the people on Intervention are actually in danger of dying with the next binge. Hoarding probably isn't going to kill anyone of them. 

As far as getting them to change their thinking, haven't people been trying to convince them of that for years? Maybe it's different if this is a professional talking to them (assuming they have not had counseling before). I still think that the professional caters to the hoarder too much. 

Hasn't the time passed for them to have to analyze each item, from every piece of spoiled food to scrap of paper? 

Sad thing is, just with Intervention, there seems to be a high degree of relapse. Guess it shows how deeply rooted the illness is.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

TeighVaux said:


> Those are great points, Ron Dawg. True that the people on Intervention are actually in danger of dying with the next binge. Hoarding probably isn't going to kill anyone of them.
> 
> As far as getting them to change their thinking, haven't people been trying to convince them of that for years? Maybe it's different if this is a professional talking to them (assuming they have not had counseling before). I still think that the professional caters to the hoarder too much.


Hoarding could eventually kill any of them, due to disease (remember Judi the woman who strapped herself to the potty chair each night, and threw her used Depends anywhere it was convenient :down: ), fire hazard, etc. But it takes a lot longer than someone with a serious substance abuse problem, especially with certain drugs like opiates (heroin, etc.).

As far as loved ones trying to change their behavior, a big common denominator in these episodes is the hoarder's relationship with family. Many of them did not get along well with family (Augustine was an extreme example) and often a big sticking point is them being "nagged" about their hoarding. Sometimes people have to hear it from someone else in order to see things differently.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

OMG I think I just found Augustine's long-lost twin. Slightly less obnoxious, but just as difficult.

I couldn't believe that the city/county has let Gail (different from the Gail I previously mentioned) live in a fire-damaged home for *25 years!!!* Considering one of the fire-damaged beams is on the verge of failure (which is why the house needs to be cleaned out, so badly-needed repairs can be done) I'm surprised the weight of all that stuff hasn't just caused the house to implode.

Her oldest son blames the fire for setting something off in her emotionally, so I find it odd that she would allow herself to live in such a fire hazard. And I can't believe she kept that couch/"rat motel."

I had to laugh during the Warren/Leann segment in which the de-cluttering expert tells Leann that she's just as much at fault as her husband was  She has blaming her husband for the mess, and has even threatened to leave him for it. Yet it became clear that a large portion of the stuff was clearly not his (100 boxes of Electrasol?) and he made MUCH better progress than she did.

Their young son seems to have a "clean-freak" gene and hopefully as he gets older he'll keep them from slipping back into this behavior.

I hope that Warren was able to sell all that surplus piping and other materials, which he estimated to be worth about $60k. That way he can use a more appropriate vehicle for his business than an Acura, and his son doesn't have to ride in the backseat with a heavy tool box right next to him.


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## verdugan (Sep 9, 2003)

RonDawg said:


> he made MUCH better progress than she did.


He made great progress, but it was still sad to see that he couldn't let go of the van. Hopefully with time he'll be able to.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

TeighVaux said:


> As far as Christina (the psychologist with the 12 year old), did I miss mention of where the girl's father is? I was wondering why her father doesn't take her out of the situation.


I believe I read somewhere, maybe the A&E discussion, that her daughter's father is deceased. I also thought it was a bit odd they didn't say anything about him on the show.

But it was a lot weirder that they dropped all these hints about something happening in Germany that caused her to be "stripped of her medical credentials" so she lost "both her job and her career." Huh? Why give us these little hints about something so dramatic if they aren't going to tell the audience what happened? They could have easily said "she lost her job and is now unemployed" without being so dramatic about it. They've described other hoarders as "unemployed" in the past. But in Christina's case, there was obviously some big secret drama that she didn't want revealed on TV, so in that case, why bother to tell us that she lost her "credentials" in the first place.

Leanne was really annoying. I liked her husband Warren, who took responsibility (he actually said "I'm a hoarder" right off the bat, which is unusual) and was actually doing something to clean up his crap, but she just sat there and pointed to piles she planned to "sort later." Uh-huh. I can't believe she had her whole family convinced that Warren was the one with the hoarding problem. She seemed more than half-responsible for the mess.



TeighVaux said:


> Interesting clinical philosophies between Intervention (which precedes Hoarders) and Hoarders. On Intervention, the families and the interventionist are taking a zero tolerance approach to the behavior to the point of cutting them off if they continue. On Hoarders, it seems like too much control and tolerance is still being granted to the hoarder despite the destructive nature of their behavior.


You have to take a "zero tolerance" approach to drugs for most addicts. Having a "little bit of cocaine" (or meth, or whatever) doesn't work.

Hoarding, otoh, is different. You can't tell a hoarder to go "cold turkey" on having clothes. Or food. (Like you can't tell an obese person to "just say no" to food.) Everybody has to have _some_ stuff. The issue is learning where to draw the link -- how much stuff is _too much stuff_?

Lots of people are pack rats and live with a decent amount of clutter in their lives without becoming true "hoarders." It becomes a problem when it's difficult to move through your house, when you can't use your dining table, or your bed, and there is nowhere to sit, except for that one chair in front of the TV or computer (where the hoarders tend to camp out). The hoarders can't figure out how to draw that line between "some stuff" and "way too much stuff" and it takes a lot of decisions every single day about what to keep and what to toss. Those decisions are too overwhelming for them.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

verdugan said:


> He made great progress, but it was still sad to see that he couldn't let go of the van. Hopefully with time he'll be able to.


I would have been very surprised if he let that go. Clearly he's still in mourning.

But at least he got rid of most of his other stuff. Now the difficult part is ensuring his wife doesn't slip back into that behavior, since she's been in denial about it for just about their entire marriage.


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## megory (Jan 23, 2003)

dthmj said:


> Interestingly after this show, I was talking to hubby. In the preview for the next episode a woman said "if I can't see it, it doesn't exist". Hubby said that rang very true to him - he felt that way. And all of a sudden things clicked. Our house has always been cluttered. Cleanish, but cluttered, but also not cluttered to the point of these people, or even Clean House (not even remotely). For example, in our living room we have a secretary. Hubby puts his wallet, keys, work ID badge, and change on it. I hate that he does this. I want him to put that stuff away - he wants it out - because if he can't see it, it doesn't exist. So that explains why all of our stuff is out - it never makes it into a cabinet, closet, drawer, etc for very long.


 This is an ADD quality that is hard-wired into some of us. We have to develop routines (a/k/a coping mechanisms), and some of them include terrific routines (good link) like the one your husband follows.

Hoarders makes me feel so neat. I am a clutterer who shares your husband's um, quality, but love things organized (I also have a strong linear streak that offsets much of the ADD). My living spaces are decently neat(My worst "hoarding" is books. They are everywhere! ) and my house is always clean, but the garage and porch are waiting for someone to help me toss. We used to move every 2 years, and that was major toss-it time, but we've stayed put for 14 years.

I think many people on TC are hoarders on their TiVos!


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## megory (Jan 23, 2003)

TiVoJedi said:


> If someone can invent a 'hopper' that you just dump clean clothes into and magic hands inside fold the clothes and spit out piles of perfectly folded clothes, you'd have a customer for life and I might even put the clothes away properly.


CLEANING LADY!


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

Is anyone watching this??????

Both Ruth and Doug really broke my heart this week. Doug's family was just so unsupportive. It was really sad when the next door neighbor was more willing to help than his own family. This is a guy who probably shouldn't have ever been living alone in the first place.

As for Ruth, I feel bad for the situation she is in. This is obviously a family with a lot of problems.

I often don't feel any sympathy for the hoarders but this week really got to me.


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## rhuntington3 (May 1, 2001)

Yeah, this week's episode was a hard one to watch.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

ITA with Aadam. Admittedly, most of them just irk me but I felt badly for both of these folks. The poor lady with half of her family dying early deaths - it's not even hard to understand how she fell so far.

The young man with the family who seemingly don't give a crap, yet tried to make it seem as though they did - not buying. The sister, on one hand, mentioned early on that she was trying to get him to move in with her yet, OTOH, she couldn't even manage to show up until several hours after the scheduled beginning of the clean up. 

I just got a bad vibe from them more like - ewww, I don't want to have to deal with this guy, yet I want to make sure I get my part of inheriting the house when he kicks it.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

Lifetime is airing a one hour "Where are they now?" special tonight at 9pm. I think they are toying with the idea of reviving the series. This show was my guiltiest of pleasures and I really hope to see it return. I know that Augustine and Kevin (the fifth floor walk up NYC guy) will be featured. I'm not sure who else is on.

I really miss the cast especially Matt and Dr. Robin Zasio. Can't wait to watch this!!


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

Thank aadam! I no longer have an SP for Hoarders so I wouldn't have picked it up. I'm curious to see how many people are still living clean. I'm guessing probably none (by my standards).


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

bareyb said:


> Thank aadam! I no longer have an SP for Hoarders so I wouldn't have picked it up. I'm curious to see how many people are still living clean. I'm guessing probably none (by my standards).


Not sure if spoiler tags apply to real life but here is update on Kevin from the New York Times from a few months ago.



Spoiler



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/nyregion/kevin-mccrary-a-hoarder-faces-a-deadline-to-pack-up-and-move-out.html


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

aadam101 said:


> Not sure if spoiler tags apply to real life but here is update on Kevin from the New York Times from a few months ago.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Interesting updates. I remember Kevin ( and all the people in the special) very well. I had never heard of Jinx Falkenberg before, but I thought she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. I even started a thread on it here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=478113


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Thanks, Aadam! I wish I had seen this yesterday. I'll look for re-airings. 

I miss this show (in a way). I still watch the TLC version - Hoarding: Buried Alive, but it's not as good.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

sharkster said:


> Thanks, Aadam! I wish I had seen this yesterday. I'll look for re-airings.
> 
> I miss this show (in a way). I still watch the TLC version - Hoarding: Buried Alive, but it's not as good.


Shouldn't be a problem. There were several re-airings listed last night. It was interesting to see what changed and what stayed the same. It's truly a heart breaking affliction for all concerned. I don't think I'd have the patience to deal with it for very long if this were one of my family members. I'd probably just bail I'm sad to say. It seems like the people trying to help them are having their lives destroyed more than the person they are trying to help.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Man, I'm having the stoopidest day ever, today! First, when I got to my living room TV I searched it on the guide for A&E channel. Nothing last night or ever. Then I came back here to this thread to see what dum bass thing I did wrong and see that it was on Lifetime. D'oh! 

Searched Tivo guide for Lifetime and nothing coming up. Will have to diary it to catch the new one. Like others, I had deleted my SP for this show after it ended. SP probably wouldn't have picked it up anyway, since this aired on Lifetime.


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