Helping the Hoarder

Whats the fine line between hoarding and collecting ?

With a hoarder, it goes beyond just being messy and unwilling to clean up. If it's compulsive and seriously hinders day-to-day aactivities then it can be considered hoarding as opposed to mere messiness.

Also, you'll notice that the hoarder usually has some trauma in their past which marked the start of their compulsion.

Hoarder: someone who compulsively has the need to collect things, they seem to have emotional attachment to their belongings, can't stop

Messy people are just messy

one is a mental disorder one is lazines

I truly believe that hoarding has different levels and people develop the addiction for various reasons. Like any other hoarderholic as I call it has in their minds become this for their own reasons which to them will make perfect sense but to us probably no sense at all ..

However I also believe that some of these " hoarders " are just plain lazy and the mess just gets so far out of reach that they just kind of throw hands in air and say " forget it " , I'm never going to catch up with this mess

Some of my theories of hoarding

1) Some may have grown up in a poor family where they had nothing or where they bounced around from foster home to foster homes as kids and they had nothing really to call their own. I think they want to hang on to everything useful or not so they don't have to experience the " have nothing" feeling again. I have seen some of those who will hide or stash their stuff in closets of sheds or even storage away from the property , whereby you would not know they hoard as it is all hidden from the eye. So when you go to their home (s) you would not have a clue they were like that.

2) Then there are the ones who bury themselves in buying " stuff " in the same way some people eat for comfort or avoidance of other underlying issues. These people are the ones who probably need some sort of counseling and not judgmental or pointing fingers kinda people around them. The ones who really don't get it and just kinda label them as lazy and useless and etc.

3) Next are those hoarders who will work and have great jobs and look really well kept and etc. They are more the lazy ones whereby eventually the mess has got so out of hand they just give it up and it gets way way out of control.

4) There are also the hoarders that are actually dirty dirty disgusting individuals , there are no kind words or sympathetic comments that I can offer.

Once the hoarder has been challenged and through time and patience a break through has been made, you may be able to help them clean up either a one time major haul out or maybe weeks of daily tasks , Baby steps have to be used in order to be successful depending on the degree of sickness of the hoarder (s).

Probably the best bet is to engage in the advice of a professional as this can be a traumatic experience for the individuals and can lead to major set backs or other unwanted mental issues that could even scar for life .

Some hoarders will as they call it " collect " things and just buy and buy and buy til they are so buried in stuff they can't even walk around. In some cases its piled so high you can't walk very well or very fast and the danger is this , If a fire or a need for a ambulance they wont get inside the home cause the front door won't even open wide enough. Often the hoarding continues through out the entire home including the basement , kitchen and any space they can get a hold of. Nothing is considered sacred space. If their children temporarily move out for schooling for example. , they just just simply take over that space and when the child gets back he has to maybe sleep in a tent outside if even that is available.

The hoarder him/ her self needs to be counselled to wake up and reach for the sky , get out from under and stand up to be the person they can be. Professional help can help them understand the steps to becoming free from their addictions and to live again.But unless the hoarder is serious , chances are he or she will do it all over again , That is the sad part of it all and everyone's efforts

There are some hoarders who will go the the extreme to rent up to 10 storage lockers to keep their things safe and away from those they are hiding it from I have witnessed one person who had the entire house except their living room was full . They had stuff in one of their children's basement as well as 2 rented storage lockers and a warehouse in the downtown area, This was an extreme hoarding situation but there was not the filth I will talk about in another capsule. I also believe some hoard away from the home as they are afraid someone will throw their possessions away .

When the hoarding is just gone beyond the wall as shown below one can only feel sorry and wish they could help couples like this return to a normal healthy living condition that I am sure they once lived in.

It's a time like this when very often the hoarders children or other family members will attempt to step in and force something to change . It can be very heart breaking to see your parent (s) live like this and often drives a wedge between them . It gets really sad when a family falls apart as they soon begin to feel that the " Junk " is more important then them .

The UNKNOWN factors it what is the most bothersome as people try to figure out the age old question "why" ? Why are they ? Why did they start ? Where or when will it end ?

Many of us collect things of a theme but thankfully most of us don't collect so much that they are literally buried alive. Some are more obsessed with the idea of keeping things "just cause " . Those are the ones that generally become extreme hoarders and that's the worst there are. I have witnessed some hoarders who are so bad for so long that their place becomes unhealthy from filth and dead animals buried about , mice . A real germ fest .

I know that the situation is extremely frustrating for family and friends and none will " get it ". When people are knocked down with a addiction or addictions no matter what it is . most people don't get it. Nor do they want to.

However major patients need to be exercised and everyone on the same page as the surge ahead to clean it up comes into pay.

Ever wonder when you drive by and see someones yard piled in garbage and etc and think it looks disgusting ... Just think about what it must look like inside ... Now that's a awful vision for me. Often when the house gets full they will begin to use their backyards for storage and that can really lead to even more rats and other creatures whom are excited and intrigued by the garbage.

I have learned that there are some very filthy Dirty Hoarders out the and these people really seem to be the most hardest for me to understand. Because even if when or if they clean up these homes are really filthy walls and carpets and etc. Indicating to me they are as lazy as sick.

Its really sad to see conditions like this but on the other hand seeing them clean up and get rid of stuff is very rewarding actually .

I do believe that some hoarders are not really hoarders per say but more they are really lazy and just don't want to do the work it takes to clean up their mess. So they cry hoarder and make like they are fussing to throw stuff away , That's just a act . Then after the work is done they are happy they got the help and everything is all good .

If you think you know of a hoarder who wants help the talk to them and get them to contact

www.aetv.com/hoarders

Below is a video showing a case of someone literally buried alive !