Hoarders

I love everyone on the show with one exception. The therapist Dave tollin has no compassion for the people.. he is not likeable person.. I can see he really upsets people.. he needs to learn personality traits. He could take lessons fron the other doctors...

When I first tuned in to this show, I wasn't sure what to expect. After getting a degree in psychology I thought we would see more on screen therapy. The stories of these people are amazing. While some fully acknowledge their illness, the really compelling stories are the ones where the person is in complete denial about their hoarding. I would like to see more of the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) being done with the people to see how effective cleaning up the hoard over such a short amount of time is for their psyche. Nonetheless - this is definitely worth a watch. It can be downright disgusting and disturbing (people who hoard animals drives me bonkers) -but it gives you insight in to the world of hoarding and obsessive compulsive disorders. I think many of the participants (unwilling and willing) have plenty of other psychiatric illnesses which make it more difficult to deal with, so it's interesting to see if the two can be teased apart.

Having a full-blown hoarding mother and some tendencies myself, a friend suggested I watch a few episodes in order to better see how it affected me as a child and how serious it is. At first I thought it might be the typical exploitative program, but after watching the first episode I was having useful insights. In each episode one or two situations are introduced. Then, some kind of intervention is attempted, usually in response to some external event like threatened eviction or the city being called in. We are able to see how professional organizers approach the hoarders, and how the hoarders respond. In particular, we see all the ways they deny or minimize the problem and thus stay stuck in it.

After watching several episodes, I brought my mother over so we could watch together. Each episode turned into a few hours of regular pausing and discussion of what we were seeing. It allowed more objectivity, since we were partly discussing other people rather than ourselves. My mother reported that she had felt enthusiasm and done some cleaning of her own house later that day. There was one professional organizer who had an amazing attitude of respect for the hoarder, not pressuring but simply assisting where possible, in order to achieve the most long-term change. I will always remember her as the model for how I can be towards my mother, rather than judgmental and ultimately harmful towards her progress, not that feeling such things isn't completely understandable.

Even though the show is probably mere entertainment for most people (nothing wrong with that!), it's great that it also serves such a valuable role for viewers who also deal with hoarding as well.

I've paraphrased one of my favourite quotes from this show, because as outrageous as it sounds, there's a sharp sting of truth to it.

While it can be a difficult watch, Hoarders - much like its sister-show, Intervention - gives great insight into the many reasons people succumb to the disorder.

Watch enough episodes and you find a common theme: The catalyst is typically some deeply ingrained trauma that has been long-buried. And when burying it psychologically got too hard, these people turned to stuff - physically burying themselves (and their unfortunate family members) in objectively meaningless crap, barricading themselves in from the world outside.

I first saw the show in 2007, not long after a family member - a self-described 'packrat' - died unexpectedly, and left a lot of crap behind. I found it oddly comforting to watch 'Hoarders' while I sifted through the remnants of their life.

Ten years later, after a series of unfortunate events - the GFC, unemployment, financial loss, more deaths and family issues surrounding Life-threatening illness, disability, addiction, alcoholism, depression etc. - the show helped me seek treatment that I doubt would even exist without the awareness programs like this have raised.

When I began watching it, I did so with a smug sense of complacency that there was no way I, or anyone around me, could end up like that. And while it never got to the extremes depicted on the show - I now understand how something that seems so unthinkable can potentially affect anyone of us. Definitely food for thought.

I like this show. It helps a few people And their families who need help. It also shows that it is a mental disease so hopefully people will have more compassion for the disorder.

When it was originally filmed I always wanted them to help the families paint and fix the house a bit. But I am in 3 episodes of the 2019 episodes and so far that hasn't happened. I hope there are some happy episodes. That's what I liked to see from earlier episodes. When the family triumphs.

I understand why this show might make people feel depressed. My sister is an early stage hoarder and she says it gives her anxiety to watch. For me it motivates me to clean and declutter.