Hoarders TV Show

Each week, two people are featured in Hoarders: The Complete Season One. The hoarders are offered the help of a clean-up crew, but the hoarders must participate in the cleaning process. The crew cannot just clean the house. They know that if someone else eliminates the clutter and garbage from the house, the hoarder will replace it in no time at all.

Some of the people face eviction, loss of their children, divorce, and condemned homes, but they still struggle with the decision of throwing away moldy food or a soda can.

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The average person has no problem when it is time to throw away items before the clutter becomes hoarding. But, to a person afflicted with the obsessive compulsive disorder of hoarding, each item causes extreme anxiety and distress. That anxiety is shown in different ways, as you can see on the "Hoarders" show. Sometimes we see the hoarders seemingly nonchalant about their environment. Meanwhile, the garbage trucks are sitting in the driveway waiting to carry away tons of waste. Others become angry, defiant, and defensive.

Each episode of "Hoarders" begins with the message, "Compulsive Hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary."

There is no clear and universally accepted definition of hoarding in the DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But it is understood that hoarding encompasses certain characteristics:

• Acquiring possessions that appear to be useless, yet the person cannot discard any of the items without severe anxiety.


• Living spaces are so cluttered that normal things such as cooking in the kitchen, bathing in the bathroom, or even sleeping in a bed cannot be done.

Hoarding creates dangerous situations. A house cannot be cleaned if there is clutter that reaches the ceilings, so problems with rodents and insects become apparent.

Fire hazard is a big issue.

If someone requires medical attention, often the emergency personnel cannot get to the ill person.