I have watched the TV show Hoarders several times now and it seems all to

be quite pointless..  Nothing ever gets done and by the end of the show

the house / apartment is still a mess and very little if anything actually got

done.

I think that the people that go in to help the hoarders caudal the hoarders

way too much. I think that it should be more like the TV show Intervention

this is just as much of an addiction as drugs or alcohol And the hoarders

should be given a bottom line such as you will lose your house

or apartment if the place is not immediately cleaned up and they

should stick to their bottom lines. I think that the people on this show needs

to take a stronger stance and run it more like an intervention.

I like the one saying from that TV show Intervention

" I will do everything to help you today but we will not allow this to continue"

That is the same kind of attitude that should be taken with the hoarders

The way things are on this show right now it is pointless and nothing gets

done and the house is still a danger to people even after the show

has ended.  They don't need to do just a single room but they need

to do the WHOLE house or apartment.

So far the way the people that go in to help the hoarders are not doing enough

and it kind of makes the show pointless. stop caudling them and start actually

helping them.

The hoarders should not have a say any longer and if need be the police

and fire inspectors should be there on the days of the claen up and if they

do not see that the house is safe then no one should be allowed to stay there

any longer.

 

You always worry about hurting the feelings of the hoarder which is B.S.

also living in a house full of decaying food and garbage is NOT hoarding

that is just a bio hazard and no one should be allowed to stay in that

situation but I have watched your show several times and the house was

still a mess at the end and still unsafe.

 

I don't think you are helping them at all you are definitely taking advantage

of their disease and filming the situation but you are not really helping them.

 

You need to take more of a tough love approach with the hoarders and give

them less say and get the house so that it is actually livable in the residence

again.

Hi Connie,
I sure will let everyone know when her episode will be aired. Thanks for your interest.

Thanks GeorgieGirl. :)

Everyone has had a moment, no matter how brief, where they have been unable to decide whether they should keep something or throw it away.  For the people profiled on Hoarders, these moments have been strung out indefinitely, and just as often they make bad decisions regarding accumulated clutter.  There is no reason to believe that people with this type of impaired judgment would respond to "tough love."  For that matter, drug addicts and alcoholics seldom respond to it either, but that never stops some self-righteous people from blaming the victim.  For a longer tome on my views, please see my recent blog post.  

I've studied intervention tactics for over 25 years, and there is no evidence to indicate that a "tough love" approach works with drug abuse or alcoholism, notwithstanding the anecdotal evidence that may be claimed by the show Intervention, which (incidentally) I have not seen. The seminal work on this topic is the book Licit and Illicit Drugs by Edward M. Brecher, written in 1972, which I strongly recommend. (It can be found online for free at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/cu/cumenu.htm . ) Quoting from Chapter 10:

"An addicting drug is one that most users continue to take even though they want to stop, decide to stop, try to stop, and actually succeed in stopping for days, weeks, months, or even years. It is a drug for which men and women will prostitute themselves. It is a drug to which most users return after treatment at Lexington, at the California Rehabilitation Center, at the New York State and City centers, and at Synanon, Daytop, Phoenix House, or Liberty Park Village. It is a drug which most users continue to use despite the threat of long term imprisonment for its use and to which they promptly return after experiencing long-term imprisonment."

From what I've seen of hoarding behavior, it is categorically different from drug addiction in that hoarders do not experience physical symptoms of withdrawal. In any event, there is no reason to believe that either a drug addict or a hoarder can be cured by tough love.

And after those two episodes, I did feel interested enough to keep up on watching. It is somewhat fascinating as I am kind of the opposite of a hoarder, because if I get something, I feel like it must be to replace something else, and that something else is generally just given away or put by the dumpster for somebody else to find use for.

 

So you're the guy that knows everything, huh?  What do you think you know about hoarding?  Are you a hoarder?  Are you a psychiatrist?  Do you know anyone who's a hoarder?  Do you have ANY experience with hoarders, or did you only just hear about it when you saw the show?  Who are you to sit there at your computer and say you know better what to do about hoarding that the psychologists and other professionals who have actually STUDIED the disorder?  Or family members who have DEALT with it.  How arrogant must you be to actually use the words "They  NEED NEED NEED NEED NEED to do it this way blah blah blah because I know so much better".  Well, guess what. You don't.

You have to remember that hoarding is still a very misunderstood disorder and not much is known about what causes it and what can fix it.  In other words, people are still trying to figure out what really works and what doesn't and the team on Hoarders is probably the best path of treatment sufferers have so far.  In the future, as we learn more, I'm sure new methods and ideas will be added to the treatments as we figure out exactly how to deal with hoarding.  But until then, this show is probably the best thing going for them, and us, their children, who have had to grow up suffering from these conditions.

Yes, it is infuriating to know the emotional and physical destruction extreme hoarding can cause, but we can't just paint it all black and white.  Just because someone's a hoarder, doesn't mean we have the right treat them worse than the trash they accumulate in their house.  It's no excuse to be inhumane.

I don't understand what you mean by the houses are still not in livable condition by the end of the show.  I've seen the show too and my eyes tell me that the houses, though still with stained carpet and walls and other traces left behind, the houses are MUCH more livable than they were.  And, as you may not have noticed on the show, if the house truly IS unlivable, they don't let them back there. And, as I recall, the show clearly stated that the hoarders would be getting therapy and help keeping their homes clean after the show.  So, I donno how you missed that, but yeah.

You obviously don’t understand the definition of “enabling”.  HOW exactly are they enabling the hoarders by doing the show?  They are making these people face their demons and admit they have a problem.  That’s the first step to recovery of any kind, admitting that there’s a problem, realizing it’s there, and realizing something needs to be done about it.  That's not enabling, that's HELPING.

If nothing else, the show brings awareness to the nation about a largely unknown, misunderstood disorder and sheds light on a subject many who have suffered with hoarding or family members who hoard have kept a shameful secret for so long.  To me, when I saw the show, it was like a door of hope opening up in my life.  For the first time, I realized I wasn't alone as the child of a compulsive hoarder.  I realized that there just might actually be help for my mother, as most of the houses on the show are much worse than my moms.  So, in my opinion, the show is ANYTHING BUT POINTLESS.  It's not exploitation.  It's not enablement.  These people are TRULY trying to help people who are suffering from a problem.  They are good people and don't deserve to be criticized by those out there who are ignorant of the reality of hoarding.

Wow, I'm surprised that there are people out there that are clueless to hoarding! I have been around it a good part of my life (my mom is the hoarder) so I know it's out there, just like we all know there are alcoholics and drug addicts out there. I understand this is a show and time constraints and financial issues exist. And I believe there aren't that many hoarder experts out there yet. It seems it's still a new field of study. Just like alcoholism and drug and food addiction, we tend to classify people as "doing it to themselves", not like having a physical/genetic disease. Yes, it does seem like they coddle them too much, but how many of us are mental illness experts? This is where this falls under. You can't yell at them like a child and tell them to clean it up. They have a mental illness, be it minor or extreme. They don't seem to have control over it.
When my husband and I watch the show, we both say most of them will not get better because they were probably in denial to begin with. People that want to get better, from the person dieting to the cigarette smoker to the heroine junkie have to want to get better and accept the help. It is a good show because I think it has opened people's eyes and the pack-rat relative or friend you have may have more problems than you think!

Thank you, Archenya!  I feel exactly as you do and I, too, am a child of a hoarder, though my mother's issues got worse as she got older.  Unless people have had to deal with a loved one that has a mental illness, they will never know what it's really like! 

You mention that "Intervention" is the better way to do it. But I must point out how very low the success rates of that show are also. I'm afraid neither of these shows puts the "subject" as more important than ratings. "Intervention" essentially sells the specific rehab facilities in each show. Even the "success" stories are not very impressive or long term. They never mention "12-step" which is refreshing, but I would guess it is used by most of these rehabs. It has such a strangle hold on the american addiction system despite it's lack of proven success. If it works for someone, I think that's fine, use whatever makes you a healthier, happier person. But I will never condone forced religion. AA/ 12 step is definitively religious in nature. Plus you never hear any mention of other possible treatment such as maintenance therapy like methadone (or the less stigmatized but similar suboxone) treatment. These have arguably better success rates for opiate addiction and would be a very legitimate option. None should not be the ONLY option. Anyway, my only point was that "Intervention" doesn't succeed much either.

It is funny that they say Hoarding is also a mental diease or codition, but they treat it entirely opposite from addiction. They basically avoid interventions with hoarders and treat them with kid gloaves. Often I worry they confront the hoarders only to provoke something for TV. Some of those "professionals" have no business working with the truly ill. They like to flaunt their credentials with goofy terms like "professional organizer with an emphasis in yada yada". What the heck is a professional organizer and why are they dabbling in mental health? There are a couple actual clinicians, but I would question the roles on the show and we don't know their training and experience. Some of these people need real, immediate psychiatric help. Many might be good candidates for medication that they won't get from an "organizer". Certain conditions respond to meds very well. Each of these featured people have obvious similarities such as a tendency to "churn" their piles with no observed effect. Also many will tell stories about the most mundane items, just going through each items history endlessly. But others are significantly different and, I would argue, would be diagnosed differently. If in fact they ever get diagnosed by a professional.

All this being said, i also get frustrated when the "coddle" the horaders. It's human nature to want to smack them in the head and say "It's a G-D slurpee cup you moron! Throw it away before you're drooling in a pile of your own feces!". Unfortunately that is what makes this an interesting show. it's fascinating like a confusing train wreck on acid.

Listen the way of doing this should be like an intervention at least they would get something done! And some one was saying that there was such a low success rate that is just false there can be GOOD results with interventions if done right. The bottom line is that A&E are just exploiting these people and not really helping them at all. With the conditions in these houses the people should NOT be allowed to stay there till they can pass a health and safety inspection. I am sick of seeing people moving back into these homes at the end of the show with the conditions still
horrible. NO one should be allowed to move back into a home that is unfit to live in but yet I have seen many
times A&E has just left and let the people remain there.

I think the city needs to be get involved in these situations and
have the people evicted from the home till it was properly cleaned up
they are not only endangering their own lives in the house and every
one that lives there but neighbors and other people in the community.

DarkShado...you mean the city government? I am part of our city government, and no way would I ever vote to pass a law evicting people from their homes. That is too much 'big brother', which I will not be a part of. That is why there is the health department and fire department. If that doesn't suffice, then let them live there. It's better than being homeless totally. In my opinion anyway. I know how horrible some of these homes have been......but I'm just saying.