I watched an interesting show last night about hoarding.
According to the promo, “Intense and highly personal, A&E’s true-life docuseries “Obsessed” examines the lives of everyday people imprisoned by unmanageable, repetitive behaviors and sometimes debilitating fear. Whether it is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder, Hoarding or a variety of phobias, the unscripted series gives viewers a chance to see first-hand how an obsession can radically affect a person’s life. By using cognitive behavioral therapy, each subject is taught how to understand the thought process which contributes to his or her symptoms and is coached on how to change these thought patterns, manage their anxiety and avoid the resulting debilitating compulsions. The show explores the stories of sufferers as well as the adverse effects their disorders have on their friends and family.”
It is going to be an interesting series to watch. I remember the first time I encountered somebody who did this. It was my mother's neighbor, a kind little old lady, who lived across the street. She had paths to get from room to room and the piles were from ceiling to floor. I was shocked as I never saw anything like it. I wondered what treasures she might actually have in there as I loved antiques, but probably anything of value was buried and one would have to really hunt through the garbage.
Later on I realized that hoarding can also be in the form of animal collecting, as a lady I know has way too many animals in her parent’s home, mostly cats, totaling at least 20 or more and a few dogs. It was an environmental hazard as you couldn’t catch your breath inside this house due to the stench and there was a child who lived amidst it. I can’t imagine the hazard that hoarding can cause, fires, and even perhaps personal illness and/or injury. After all you could get buried underneath a pile that fell over!
People who suffer from this hard-to-treat psychological disorder are unable to discard items because of an exaggerated fear of needing them again, concerns over being wasteful or a sentimental attachment to the items. Animal hoarders think they are saving the animals from being euthanized at a shelter, but how can one care for that many animals properly and in such crowded conditions? She never allowed her animals out of the house. To me, animal hoarding borders on animal neglect/abuse but often they can't see that, just as obsessive hoarders cannot see the trees for the forest? Geeze.
Some hoarders accumulate so much that they nearly bury themselves in their own homes, which was the case of this guy on the show last night. This guy, named Richie is an extreme hoarder who can't throw away anything that belongs to his deceased mother. As he grieves her loss, he's even blocked off the hallway to his mother's bedroom, making the room inaccessible. I believe that even his mother was hoarding before she died. Throwing away anything of hers was a source of extreme anxiety. A therapist and him worked for a year and only cleared away the hallway and his mother’s bedroom. He however, could not bring himself to throw away the dried flowers from her funeral, which he kept in big boxes.
I wonder if they will do a follow up show in a year and see if he has kept progressing in his attempt to clear his living situation to a bearable existence. It was truly unbelievable how much stuff was in that house. I will be tuning in to watch the series.
If you missed last night’s segment and you’re interested in watching the full episode about Richie’s story, click here.
According to the promo, “Intense and highly personal, A&E’s true-life docuseries “Obsessed” examines the lives of everyday people imprisoned by unmanageable, repetitive behaviors and sometimes debilitating fear. Whether it is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder, Hoarding or a variety of phobias, the unscripted series gives viewers a chance to see first-hand how an obsession can radically affect a person’s life. By using cognitive behavioral therapy, each subject is taught how to understand the thought process which contributes to his or her symptoms and is coached on how to change these thought patterns, manage their anxiety and avoid the resulting debilitating compulsions. The show explores the stories of sufferers as well as the adverse effects their disorders have on their friends and family.”
It is going to be an interesting series to watch. I remember the first time I encountered somebody who did this. It was my mother's neighbor, a kind little old lady, who lived across the street. She had paths to get from room to room and the piles were from ceiling to floor. I was shocked as I never saw anything like it. I wondered what treasures she might actually have in there as I loved antiques, but probably anything of value was buried and one would have to really hunt through the garbage.
Later on I realized that hoarding can also be in the form of animal collecting, as a lady I know has way too many animals in her parent’s home, mostly cats, totaling at least 20 or more and a few dogs. It was an environmental hazard as you couldn’t catch your breath inside this house due to the stench and there was a child who lived amidst it. I can’t imagine the hazard that hoarding can cause, fires, and even perhaps personal illness and/or injury. After all you could get buried underneath a pile that fell over!
People who suffer from this hard-to-treat psychological disorder are unable to discard items because of an exaggerated fear of needing them again, concerns over being wasteful or a sentimental attachment to the items. Animal hoarders think they are saving the animals from being euthanized at a shelter, but how can one care for that many animals properly and in such crowded conditions? She never allowed her animals out of the house. To me, animal hoarding borders on animal neglect/abuse but often they can't see that, just as obsessive hoarders cannot see the trees for the forest? Geeze.
Some hoarders accumulate so much that they nearly bury themselves in their own homes, which was the case of this guy on the show last night. This guy, named Richie is an extreme hoarder who can't throw away anything that belongs to his deceased mother. As he grieves her loss, he's even blocked off the hallway to his mother's bedroom, making the room inaccessible. I believe that even his mother was hoarding before she died. Throwing away anything of hers was a source of extreme anxiety. A therapist and him worked for a year and only cleared away the hallway and his mother’s bedroom. He however, could not bring himself to throw away the dried flowers from her funeral, which he kept in big boxes.
I wonder if they will do a follow up show in a year and see if he has kept progressing in his attempt to clear his living situation to a bearable existence. It was truly unbelievable how much stuff was in that house. I will be tuning in to watch the series.
If you missed last night’s segment and you’re interested in watching the full episode about Richie’s story, click here.
I'm sorry about the verdict, but bad people often get off. What can I say?
ReplyDeleteMy father hoarded. Got to the point that he had narrow passageways through all this stuff and his large (maybe 100x40) storage shed full too.
I hope you're holding up.