Hoarders tv show?

[Madsen]

I've seen this mentioned here a couple times --- do a lot of you watch this show for inspiration of 'what not to do'?
I haven't seen it yet, might see if it's available on hulu or something.

[Float On]

I watched it on-line on the A&E website but they pulled the videos off of there after the season ended so I'm watching storage wars on there now.
TLC-Buried Alive (hoarding) is also something I've started watching. Some of it is downright gross - I'd suggest not eatting a snack when you sit down to watch any of those shows.

[catherine]

No, I can't say I watch it for what not to do, because I think there's huge difference between my lifestyle and theirs (although don't look in my garage with having 4 grown kids who use it as a way-station). I just don't think of myself ever getting to that point. These are people who might have a normal job, but come home and have to literally climb over papers and boxes and knick-knacks to get in the door.

However, it seems that many of them live normally and have a normal home until they reach a trigger point in their lives--like losing someone, and then it becomes a self-destructive pattern in much the same way drinking or drugging would.

So, if I were in that situation where I found myself hoarding things to fill a void in my life, I guess it's not what I WOULDN'T do, but what I WOULD do--which is seek counseling.

[Bastelmutti]

I have watched it a bit, mostly to get some insight into how people get into and stay in that situation. I have a few people in my life who aren't nearly as bad as on the show, but have some of the same things going on.

[Selah]

I have watched nearly all the episodes of both these shows, so I can better understand the psychology and thinking patterns of the hoarders, and also to keep me in line with my own acquisition of "items," aka crap! It was helpful to see the trigger events in my own life that got me started trying to fill an empty space inside by filling up a physical space with posessions. It also helped me recognize my own states of anxiety and attachment when I was letting go of a bunch of stuff in order to downsize for a recent move. When I was trying to declutter, I watched those shows avidly. Thank God I never got to the point of being a candidate for the show, but I really do have much more compassion and empathy for people now who have these problems. Watching multiple episodes of a show like this makes it easier to see the phenomena as a fairly predictable psychological pattern that can occur in all kinds of people, rather than just singling people out and condemning them for their weirdness, laziness, dirtiness, or whatever other epithet is thrown out.

When I was (still am, in fact) trying to lose weight, I watched loads of shows about morbid obesity. ("Heavy" is particularly useful.) When I was getting out of debt, I watched "Til Debt do us Part" and "The Suze Orman Show" for guidance and inspiration. When I was working with teenagers with addiction problems, "Intervention" was mandatory viewing. All these shows have been very, very helpful to me. I watch them enough so I have a basic understanding of the patterns, thought processes, and behaviors involved, and then try to spot them in myself and remedy them. It works!

[loosechickens]

I watched it for awhile after discovering that someone from my past had fallen into a hoarding life.....just trying to understand how such a thing could happen to someone I remembered as being orderly and not overly attached to stuff......after watching some of the shows, like Selah, I had a lot better understanding of the underlying emotional issues and thought processes that caused such a thing.

The person from my past was in the midst of a marriage that was ending, had some medical issues, money issues, etc., and a tendency to haunt yard sales and auctions even in the best of times, and the things happening in his emotional life just pushed him over the edge. I found it helpful in understanding the behavior, that's for sure. Although, once I grasped the "why", I didn't watch it any more, maybe because it just felt so sad to see how helpless so many of the people were to being able to change, and concern that the same thing would be true of the person I'd known.

[danna]

I watch mostly because I can see how DH might have got into this plight if not controlled. His sister live alone and is close to it, both of their parents tended to be that way.
Peter Walsh has a new show on the OWN network that seems to be for those that are not as bad. One show was a real hoarder and the rest seem to be more were the people
have just way, way too much stuff and some circumstance in their lives have put them over the top. Some seems to be more like we became in our last house with its unfinished basement
were mostly the house looks great but the basement had become a storage unit. (My niece named it a Jekel and Hyde House). Some of these people seem have their more hidden rooms like this
as in the spare room and masterbedroom....It seems to me he does too much in too short of time and I would like to see some of these people in a year. I do like that he uses most of their own
things to decorate and they are not rewarded with a totally remodelled house.....

[jp1]

THe people on hoarders seem to tend to have one of two basic problems going on. (or maybe both in some cases) First they're depressed/lonely and view their possessions as things that give their lives meaning, either just because they posess them or because they were previously the possessions of now deceased loved ones. Second, a lot of them seem to have a perpetual fear of not having enough. So they buy and/or save and/or dig through the neighbor's trash to find, stuff that they think they will need at some point in the future. There are definitely mental issues going on with pretty much all of them.

Personally I'm pretty certain I'll never end up like that. Yes, I hate to throw stuff out that I might want some day. But I also HATE shopping and am not at all into bringing home junk found in the trash/garage sales/thrift stores, etc. So the stuff I have that I don't use is all stuff that I used at one point (like the large box of formerly useful computer cables and other extraneous computer stuff that I hold onto.) At this point, though, I've let go of a lot of stuff since we've moved every couple of years now ever since I met SO.

I have a friend who definitely qualifies as a hoarder. If I had to guess I'd say that she's part of the perpetually somewhat depressed category. Every place she's ever lived has turned into a mess like on the shows. But then every few years she'll move and leave all but the bare bones of her possessions behind. A month or two in her new place and it starts all over again. I don't understand it but her good qualities far outweigh this one negative, especially since it's not like she expects, or asks, anyone else to help her deal with it. As such I just chalk it up to the fact that people are interesting. As long as my friends' interesting aspects doesn't make my life miserable I don't mind tolerating them.

[Gina]

I've seen a few of the shows but most are too extreme to be comfortable watching. Some of the people, but certainly not all, seem quite disturbed. But then the tv people do want extremes to make things more interesting.

At the beginning of the program they say there are 3 million hoarders in the US so we all must know some hard-core hoarders, but just may not know it. Secrecy and shame seem to be components of it. And many people seem to have orderly houses, yet have a closet or two, or a 'back room', basement, or garage that is completely over-run with too much stuff. Maybe that's just normal. I don't really know. LOL, what is 'normal' anyway?

My mom had mild hoarding tendencies, as do I. Some of the behavior is learned, some I think is genetic - and I think frugality can be a factor for some people too. The old 'that will come in handy some day', or 'It would cost XXX to replace that' or 'I can fix that' and then never do.

I still keep too much stuff but at least I am aware of my tendencies. I have to be careful to not bring too many things into the house, and to be mindful to keep getting rid of things I really don't use. I realize I'll never be perfect about acquiring or getting rid of stuff, and that helps.

[Madsen]

I think the 'may come in handy someday' is likely correlated with a scarcity mentality, as opposed to an abundance mentality. Focusing on scarcity vs. abundance is something many of us do (hoarders or not) and shifting that perspective can have huge positive application in all areas of life.