Hoarding Therapy | National Geographic

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Compulsive shopper and classic hoarder Sylvia Ransom gets some much-needed help from a hoarding therapist.

Hoarding Therapy | National Geographic

National Geographic

[coil]

@rosey312
My uncle used to save everything. EVERYTHING. egg cartons, hundreds, bags, rubber bands, glass, cans, even old broken items. He would puts taped notes on every item: "May have a use still" "Maybe find a new bulb", etc. He refused to throw anything away. I found dead mice, rat turds, and all sorts of MOLD CAKED items in his place. Horrific. When I would leave, my nostrils would have a black soot coating inside. Utterly disgusting place. It was chaotic.

[freetrader]

I know someone like this, he starts picking things up from the trash and moving them into the house. :/ He is not selfish or anything, its just the the illness thing.

[dogsareawomansbestfriend]

Wish I could have the patience talking to a hoarder. I need to learn the words to say!

[iadorenewyork]

No bag for garbage, therapist! Instead, use a box for donations! Therapist, let’s think about how a hoarding person thinks. She wanted to give away the men’s shoes, which is an urge that should be validated. Maybe this giving away even be arranged, which would be satisfying for the woman, and certainly for whomever gets the free shoes!

[maddtaggz]

@tofuComputer well if you are american raised, you may be informed of the great depression that accured during the 1930's. many if not most of those who grew up in those times became hoarders because they didnt have the money to buy anything so they kept it just in case. so in a sence it is a survival instinct for many.

[megeles]

@tofuComputer you would think so. I can see where you would get the idea that only people with too much money would even be able to hoard but more frequently this happens to people who don't make all that much. My own mother for instance has this problem, though she's in denial, and sometimes her utilities get shut off because she's spent too much money on items she has more than enough of.

[nameofthepen]

@tofuComputer - disagree. There are "bag people" who have the "hoarding bug". They will find bits of things on the street, or in the trash, that are "too good to waste", or, which "might be useful someday".

Then, there are avid collectors of all sorts of things (stamps, coins, Barbie dolls, clocks, salt and pepper sets, saddles, buttons, cars, cats, action figures, etc., etc. ) whom I suspect are just this side of the make/break line of rationality between "collector" vs "hoarder".

[snrnsjd]

Randy O Frost ! Great guy! Wrote good books!

[OK-wbdy]

“Focusing on feelings “ is what they said. But I can’t even do that . I avoid and feel flat and numb

[maddtaggz]

@rosey312 lol I appoligize, i did not mean to sound aggervated. it can be easy to misinterpet things online. I understand your point. we are from sc, i didnt grow up with depression parents but grandparents. yes i am younger lol...which may play apart in it. but anyways...it was good to talk with you without it being an argument on youtube lol

[rosey]

@coil311 I the UK has them too. Look for the show " How clean is your house" on YT. most are in the UK, but a few are in the US. You can collect SSDI for having a nasty house in both countries. When I have watched the shows I have only seen a couple of people I would call hoarders.Had an inlaw that was true hoarder too, but he didnt collect SSDI for it. If he had 1 camera, he had 10, One mirror= 50 and so on. They could be called true collections. From floor to ceiling. Just bat shit crazy.

[DasoPanda]

@tofuComputer I agree to a degree but there are those that are in THOUSANDS of dollars in debt because of hoarding as well. They will buy even when they have no money. lol

[Kronikwookie]

@Miikaika25 those people in her house have equipment someone could use... and boyfriends/girlfriends too so it would be best to keep them there as well.

[kaitokid]

@Trumaust7 man... i gotta rewatch that south park episode

[Kronikwookie]

@zigzigerblat god... i cant imagine someone with too much therapy.

[rosey]

@maddtaggz whoa, calm down.Of course you are entitled to your thoughts. People tend to talk back an forth with out getting upset. I grew up with depression era parents too.They didn't hoard and they were from Georgia. In my work, I know that some things are overdiagnoised and overtreated to get money from insurance/government.I have worked in it long enough to see the diag. trends come and go out of vogue. The folks getting diag. now were not alive during the depression.That was my only point.

[Miikaika]

those shoes might fit someone, so she needs to keep them... just in case..

[tofuComputer]

Perhaps my comment may sound a bit ignorant, but... it seems that without money or material objects "hoarding" wouldn't even be an issue, much less an illness. How many people "third world" countries have the same problem?

We consume too much.

Thumbs up if you agree or comment to bring better awareness.

[psychoshamrock]

The dark side of consumerism. These people define themselves by THINGS.

[rosey]

@maddtaggz I don't buy the depression era stuff. You rarely hear people who grew up poor hoarding weather or not their parents went through the depression. People in the rest of the world were hit harder than we were. They often lived in war zones for years, even twice in a life time, where they couldn't even get rationed goods and they don't hoard. It is the new diagnosis that psychologist have come up with since insurance companies are paying for less and folks can get SSI to boot.