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Post by Mugsy on Aug 22, 2009 15:27:31 GMT -4
Did anyone watch the premiere of this show on A&E last Monday?
Wow, just wow.
They focused on two people/households:
Jill was an older lady (I thought she looked in her 70s, but according to TWOP she was only 52). She was a food hoarder and had years of food all over her house. There was rotting pumpkin and squash on her living room carpet and a bag of dripping liquid lettuce, too. She had yogurt cups in her fridge that were two years past the best-before date. Her rationale was that, "If it wasn't puffy, it was still good." She said she actually ate that stuff and wasn't sick, although she looked like hell. One of the professional organizers/cleaners - who deals with this all time - actually had to vomit.
The other focus was on a family with a controlling guy who hoarded stuff. His wife, who was a SAHM of one little boy, never did any cleaning (and obviously neither did the husband). It was kind of sad and pathetic. When they finally decided to purge some of the crap, one of the things was a plastic playhouse and the little boy collapsed in sobs because he "wanted to give it to his own kids some day". He was five.
These people both fascinated and repulsed me. Apparently, the next ep will feature a man who hoards feces. Yeah, you read that right.
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Post by kostgard on Aug 22, 2009 16:10:01 GMT -4
I'll have to see if I can catch a repeat.
A&E seems to have cornered the market on facinating/horrifying reality shows. There's "Intervention" and then there was that show with the people who had phobias and compulsions ("Obsessed"?). That one had a woman whose parents died in a car crash on the highway and as such, she was terrified of driving on the highway. Understandable, but she also had the torn, bloody clothes her father was wearing when he was killed and she would WEAR THEM. As part of her treatment her therapist made her burn those clothes. Thank God.
I'll definitely have to check this one out. I'm sure they'll have someone at some point who hoards animals. That seems the saddest of all.
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bitterntwisted
Guest
Nov 27, 2024 23:53:00 GMT -4
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Post by bitterntwisted on Aug 22, 2009 22:41:17 GMT -4
The older woman hoarding food was just bizzare, but really gave an insight into the thought process of her hoarding. She had been through a period where she didn't have a lot of money and just collected food so she always had a choice. There was a nasty rotting pumpkin (sitting in the middle of the floor under other crap) that was to be thrown out, but she wanted the seeds, cuz the seeds are still good. It made me frustrated, yet laugh at the obtuse thinking.
I wonder if hoarding is stricting a western society phenomenon, what with a capitalist system that thrives on conspicuous consumption. Do they have cases of people in African villages with people hoarding goats or Miami Dolphins t-shirts? Doubt it.
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dwanollah
Guest
Nov 27, 2024 23:53:00 GMT -4
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Post by dwanollah on Aug 22, 2009 22:54:45 GMT -4
A friend of mine is a hoarder, and it started because her father threw out all her belongings, including everything from her childhood, and everything belonging to her then-recently-deceased mother. That I get. The food thing, though...? Does not compute.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Nov 27, 2024 23:53:00 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2009 9:01:59 GMT -4
That sounded logical to me as well. Until I saw the rest of her house and realized, using the same logic, she was also deprived of clean/filthy pots, pans, cat litter, garbage, etc. I also don't believe she was actually eating food that was two-years and more outdated. I think she just used the rationale, "Oh, it's not puffy, so it's still good," to hold onto that stuff. I've had the misfortune of throwing out partially used yogurt that somehow got hidden in the back of my fridge and it was RIDDLED with mold—green and black. Ain't no way she's ingesting that stuff—unless she also likes to hoard ER visits.
He'll be featured on this show if it lasts for another 15 years. And why did they encourage those kids to scrawl all over the walls? Good lord, the squalor!
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Post by Malle Babbe on Aug 23, 2009 9:16:45 GMT -4
Over on TWOP, there is actually a very interesting discussion of this show, including insights from a woman who established a business where she helps other folks get out of hoarding.
She talks quite a bit about getting into the hoarding mindset and the strategies she uses to help hoarders let go of their things. I get a sense that lot of folks who hoard feel like the don't "have permission" to pitch things; that they will be "punished" in the event that they throw something out that they need later. She mentioned that in the course of her own research, she predicts that China is set to see a lot of the hoarding phenomena you see in the western world.
Jill (the woman hoarding food) seemed like she was showing early signs of dementia; or the fumes from all the rotting food were making her seem "off" to me.
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Post by chiqui on Aug 23, 2009 12:01:36 GMT -4
Yeah, what's with A&E these days? Didn't the channel start out showing reruns of BBC dramas and the like? Now it's this. That said, the show sounds sad, but I think it's a pretty common American problem.
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Post by Spinderella on Aug 23, 2009 12:07:05 GMT -4
Watched this last night on a repeat. Poor, Jill. She clearly has a psychological problem. I think because she lived in poverty for so long, she feels the importance of rationalizing her need to 'save' food even past the expiration date with comments like, "I'll keep it until it's puffy and bloated or different colors". "What happens when sour cream goes bad? It's gets sour?"
Poor lady.
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Post by Mugsy on Aug 23, 2009 14:29:14 GMT -4
Actually, we've made that sour cream joke ourselves, but we were joking. Once the sour cream is mouldy, it's gone bad. Ugh.
Malle Babbe, yes, TWOP had a great thread about this show, including as you said, lots of input from a reformed clutterbug, now professional organizer. Also some confessed hoarders. People were sharing personal stories, what worked for them, along with discussion of the show, because you know, it's a week between eps, so by now everything that can be said about Jill the Food Hoarder has been said umpteen times. But of course, a mod there has to go shut down any "non-show discussion". Ugh. It wasn't out of control or over-share-y at all, just a great thread that moved along nicely with lots of relevant discussion. Typical.
A&E stands for Arts and Entertainment, but like TLC (The Learning Channel), they long ago veered away from that. Both seem to be the TV equivalent of a tabloid about every day freaks. A&E seems to have a lot of crime-based stuff, whereas TLC has health-based shows. I guess as long as people keep watching (and started threads on internet chat boards!), they'll keep showing them.
I don't think they'll do one on animal hoarders, because the outcome is often very sad.
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Post by kostgard on Aug 23, 2009 15:33:22 GMT -4
I caught the repeat last night too, and man. That poor lady. I was floored by the way she didn't even seem at all phased my the smell while the organizer guy was outside puking because of it.
And that other couple - what a match. She's a compulsive shopper who keeps bringing more crap into the house, and he's a hoarder who can't throw any of it away. I sometimes worry that I get too packrat-y, but I can actually see my floor and my furniture. And when I eat in bed in front of the TV it's because I'm a lazy slob, not because it's the only surface in the house where I can sit down and eat. I also have no problem throwing bags and bags of crap out when I get the notion to spring clean.
Man, I miss the old TLC. Remember when that stood for "The Learning Channel"? Now it's all Jon & Kate and reality crap. I like some of A&E's new shows, but I wish that they had continued to show BBC type stuff instead of reruns of CSI: Miami.
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