Hoarders

[DrPhil]

Tonight's episode was vomit worthy. This man's house had hundreds of thousands if not millions of roaches. Everywhere. Literally. In the spice rack. In the layers of his bed. All over this man's clothes and body.

[southernau]

I admit I sometimes watch the show, but am always repulsed at the hoaders with the worst hygene/health issues, especially when kids are involved.

Do you think hoarding is a "new" problem compared to say, a 100 years ago when they did not have as much "stuff" to worry about? I had never heard of anything this extreme until I saw this show. I tend to throw away most expendable things...sometimes to my detriment, so I am fascinated by anyone who would hoard.

[Sciencewoman]

That's a good question. Do you ever watch American Pickers? Some of the people they buy from have been "collecting" for decades.

[DrPhil]

Hoarding (under various names) has existed for generations. Somewhere on GC, maybe in this thread, there is a link to a website on the history of hoarding. I can't remember the name but generations ago a man died in his huge house or apartment because he was buried under tons of stuff.

American Pickers highlights why some collectors make it a point to not display hoarding tendencies. Collecting is hoarding once it becomes disorganized and/or dirty and obsessive and overbearing. Hoarding is discussed by more mental health organizations as a sign or symptom of other mental health conditions (including OCD). That also helps some collectors carefully draw the line between collecting and hoarding.

[southernau]

I do watch American Pickers...good comparison. However, I never made the connection to hoarding. My thoughts were that the collectors were idealistic businessmen/women with poor business plans...maybe they are hoarders?

Have you ever watched Storage Wars? Another interesting show. I find it fascinating that there are enough relinquished storage units across the country to warrant blind auctions.

[southernau]

And thank you DrPhil for the history/explanation!

[DrPhil]

An example of a history of hoarding:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/ment...ses.htm#page=0

[southernau]

...300 cats and the occasional raccoon? The two brothers story was unreal as well.

Well it's off to bed for me...here is to hoping this clean freak will not have hoarding nightmares...

[Sciencewoman]

When I'm watching American Pickers, there are some clues that convey a "hoarder" mentality. Hoarder -- when they are very reluctant to sell anything, even though they have tons of stuff, a lot of it is rusting or sitting outside, they say they have plans to restore an item but you can just tell they'll never get to it, etc.

Not hoarder -- someone who may have a ton of stuff, but it's generally in good shape and displayed nicely; their possessions are leftovers from a closed business and they definitely want to get rid of the stuff; they talk about trading/buying/selling/making a profit and don't express an "I'll have some use for this someday" mentality.

Sometimes I wonder what the homes look like, when you see how much stuff they have in the yard and sheds. On the other hand, sometimes I don't, because you just know it will probably be bad....

[AOIILisa]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Tonight's episode was vomit worthy. This man's house had hundreds o thousands if not millions of roaches. Everywhere. Literally. In he spice rack. In the layers of his bed. All over this man's clothes and body.

I got the willies just reading this. I would die if I had roaches, I've seen exactly one in my house that zoomed behind the fridge. I yelled for my husband to come pull out the fridge, bracing myself for the waves of roaches I knew were living behind there, but there was just the one little guy who was quickly dispatched. We'd just gotten our monthly farmstand delivery of locally grown produce that day, so I'm guessing that's where he came from. Not that it made me feel any better about the food that I got...

We just moved from one house to another this weekend and I threw out some stuff of mine as I do with every move because I get tired of hauling things from place to place, but yet I noticed there were boxes of the same old crap coming with us - mostly my (new) husband's mom's junk. And I do mean junk. Cheap and tacky ceramic figurines, cracked old dishes, dusty fake flowers - JUNK. And stuff I packed in boxes for the "yard sale" that we never had were all unpacked and had to be repacked again. Plus items that I actually threw out (like an old rolling pin that was in the house when we moved in) reappeared in the piles of things to move. BUT, he actually did put some items out in front of the house with a sign "FREE" so I guess that's progress.

[DrPhil]

Marathon on Discovery Fit & Health. We've discussed most of these episodes in this thread.

Hot mess. Out of the 6 episodes I watched this evening, the episode that still bothers me the most is the woman who found rats cute and claimed she was an eternal law school student.

[NinjaPoodle]

I flat out stopped watching this show. I.cant.

[whiteandblack]

I enjoy watching the show. as a neat and organized person I find it... Unbelievable. I can understand that hoarding is a mental disorder but I get crazed when the inhabitants don't throw away animal feces.