Hoarders

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.

OCDs and especially hoarding fascinate me. As this is a US reality TV series, I didn't have high hopes to begin with. However, the concept of involving a psychologist into the process and providing after care funds for the participants gave me a positive surprise.

In the first few seasons, the series really focuses on the mental part of the hoarding. You can see how hard it is for people to let go and they even fail some times. There isn't always success. I really did like that part.

However, in the following seasons it gets worse and worse. The show is trying to have more sensational cases, more extreme filth or huge family fights. The last season is not a show about hoarding anymore, but a very weird mash up of not well done Horror, Home Remodel, Makeover, Family Crisis. While I found it not helpful to show the family the "stat the house is in" in season 5, in my opinion it is completely useless to spend a night in the home and explain to a shaky hand cam how scary and disgusting it is.

The first few seasons are a nice watch, but I would recommend to stop after Season 4. Nothing good coming after that.

I think this should be required viewing every few years. A dose of reality that things are just things and that relationships are what truly matter. Both of my grandmothers are/were hoarders. My father is a hoarder just on a smaller scale. It's in my blood and something I very much wish to avoid. This series does a pretty decent job of showing the various types and degrees of hoarding and the emotional turmoil it causes everyone close to it. Get some help. Don't be a hoarder.

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.

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.