Hoarders

Hoarders is a well-crafted reality TV show that follows sufferers of hoarding disorder as they face a personal crisis that forces them to clean up their hoard. The show offers the help of a cleanup crew and psychologist and in return the hoarder agrees to have his or her personal circumstances utilized for entertainment purposes. The stories are compelling on two levels--first there is the battle against the hoard itself, generally the cleanup crew has only a few days to eliminate the hoard. More importantly, however, there is the battle that the hoarder wages in his/her own psyche to let all the stuff go and overcome their mental illness.

Hoarders is the type of show that you watch and wonder why you can't turn it off--it is all about garbage, after all. The reason however, is that it is about much more--there is real drama, because if these people do not get over their problems their lives are wrecked. Thus, the conflicts are real and compelling and draw you in.

The big problem with the show, however, is that it is likely not advisable to treat a mental illness this way--shock therapy and radical eradication of the hoard. Usually this just causes big trauma. It is quite telling that the majority of the hoarders seem to fail in their quest to get over their illness and relapse often without even partaking of the aftercare therapy that is offered. There is of course no ethical dilemma in cleaning up a hoard, but their certainly is if you are a licensed therapist and you engage in questionable treatment in pursuit of a different interest. I guess that in many cases, the hoarders on the show have reached a crisis point and the show does offer a way out, so perhaps the show is redeemable in that aspect.

This show is perfectly valid as compelling reality TV, and can certainly be watched that way. It also certainly raises awareness of hoarding. Beyond that however, you can't help but feel a little guilty for watching a person's life disintegrate because they had no other choice but call the Hoarders crew or face horrible consequences.

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 guess because it is so common, plus my late mother in law was a hoarder. She had one shopping channel on her TV so much that its initials were burned into the thing. No matter what channel you changed to, there was the logo.

The thing is, and maybe the show is picking subjects based on how well they will interest the audience, not whether or not they are true hoarders - some of these people are not true hoarders, they are just lazy or they have energy sapping diseases.

I remember one subject in particular, a diabetic lady who had a couple of children, and her house was hideous. She had roaches, she had used diabetic needles just thrown on the carpet, unusable kitchen and bathrooms due to the filth, etc. Her husband had actually moved to a different residence, although I think he was not planning on divorcing the woman. The "Hoarders Cleanup Crew" came in and was throwing things away left and right and the lady did not care. Only when she was being reproached by the hoarder counselor did she react and then she would just storm out and sit in her truck.

Hoarding is when you cannot bear to part with objects, even years old papers and pieces of string, because of some weird attachment. Hoarders are often shopaholics too, buying things that they do not need or even really want. If I know this, then I'm sure the psychologists on Hoarders know this.

I remembered this one particular show with the diabetic because I am a diabetic and I recognize the indifference and total lack of motivation and energy that seems to come with type two diabetes, you just have to force yourself to do things and you cannot explain this to people who do not have this disease and have them understand it. None of this was mentioned as a mitigating factor on the show, because I think they wanted people to just see a fat lazy woman who would not help herself and who was endangering children so that people would get angry and not tune out and thus garner ratings.

It really is repetitive after awhile, but for some reason it always interests me, like a bad accident you can't look away from.

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 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...