Hoarders - A&E

[Suzles]

I have watched this program (I missed last night's) and I think most of these people are just really sad. I'm a good organiser and I would love to go in and clean and tidy for these people and try to give them back their lives. No-one should live in such chaos and filth.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

You can see a lot of this behaviour in the elderly, especially those who lived through the great depression and who literally had absolutely nothing as kids. It was only after my grandfather died did I realize the burdens that he must have lived with throughout his life and how lucky we are relatively speaking. However when people have grown up with nothing it is easy to see how they have held on to everything that they own.

When my grandfather died there was a dumpster outside that was filled with objects that were legitimately useless, such as old hats, garbage electronics, old mattresses, appliances, national geographic magazines from the 40s-90's/00's... but one of the things that he would do is he would find old bikes, lawnmowers and things that people would throw out because they were disposable and he would fix them so they were usable once again. At the time I thought that he was crazy but after hearing of his childhood in which he went to be hungry more night than not, having brothers die because they couldn't afford medical attention and just leading what had to have been a pretty miserable existence, I can now at least partially understand why he was what some people would consider a light hoarder, he just didn't know how to throw anything away.

[troutman]

How can people be allowed to have 75 cats?

[burn_this_city]

My girlfriends grandmother never threw anything away. She would hide the garbage in the attic or under the house. If you tried to throw anything away she would have a nervous breakdown. She had severe obsessive compulsive disorder and dementia.

[The Ditch]

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

How do you define mental illness? Not having a TV, I haven't seen this special, but I have dealt with youth with hoarding issues, which often seems to stem more from upbringing than anything physiologically wrong with their brains. I have no doubt that there is something wrong there and they need professional help, but to paint them all as "mentally ill" is a bit too much of a broad stroke, IMO.

Well when people are living in their own feces as said already, and it's beyond the point where they can have a healthy relationship with their own family, and it's effecting their quality of life severely, you have to wonder, would a stable minded person ever be like this? Also, a lot of those people don't want to be like that, but they can't help it. So yeah sure, maybe not all of them have a mental illness but the cases I'm talking about (for which you admit you hadn't seen it) there's something not right with them.

[DOK]

I don't mean to stir the pot with what I'm about to say, but I'm being very genuine in this thought. When I watch the show I am always surprised of the monetary value all their stuff has. Even the woman who goes to junk yard sales, all that stuff must cost a fortune. The pet food alone, the litter, so much money. It makes me sad that gluttony can be so devastating. Most of these people seemingly don't have a lot of money, they seem to be older, but they are paying for this stuff somehow. I wonder if it's more of a north american phenomenon because of the "shopping" aspect. I suppose people in 3rd world countries don't suffer from this affliction because they don't have access to gaining so much stuff to begin with. (Although they do have their own issues there that we don't have, clearly).

As for the cognitive therapies, I think it should be manditory. I watch the other shows as well and think they should include a mental health requirement. At the least, have someone show them how to organize, what to save, what to throw away, how to make those decisions. Not to mention, the ones with deceased parents, passed away partners, they all need help coping with that if that is why they are keeping so much stuff.

[yads]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

You can see a lot of this behaviour in the elderly, especially those who lived through the great depression and who literally had absolutely nothing as kids. It was only after my grandfather died did I realize the burdens that he must have lived with throughout his life and how lucky we are relatively speaking. However when people have grown up with nothing it is easy to see how they have held on to everything that they own.

Very true. Hoarding was a huge problem in the USSR. People literally kept everything.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by troutman

How can people be allowed to have 75 cats?

That was disgusting! Seriously how many times did they have to zoom in extra tight on all the decomposing dead cat skeletons? Yes, there's alot of dead cats under that mess, we get it. We don't need to see 5 straight minutes of extra close shots of a ribcage. I had to change the channel during that sequence.

[666DanceParty]

I just picked up a part time job at a liquor store and I am now Hoarding booze.
Everyday I wake up I feel like a bag of smashed A-holes...

Pretty cool show though.