Hoarders (on A&E)

[MrsCatHead]

Does this show offer the participants any psych help? Counseling? I don't think I could watch it if it just ended on such a helpless and hopeless note. I tried to watch one epi and just couldn't make it through

[chonies]

Dec 8, 2009 18:18:24 GMT -4 MrsCatHead said:

Does this show offer the participants any psych help? Counseling? I don't think I could watch it if it just ended on such a helpless and hopeless note. I tried to watch one epi and just couldn't make it through

Yes. Each episode has a psychologist or therapist who specializes in hoarding. Some of the hoarders get follow-up counseling, but IIRC, many are non-compliant with the counselors on site and do not go for follow-ups.

I don't know much about counseling, but it seems like there's a lot of tip-toeing and emo handholding, perhaps to the point of coddling. I understand that part of the counseling process is to learn new decision making processes, but I wonder if a sterner tone would be more successful.

[cantienne]

I missed the reason that Judi tied herself to the her toilet-chair at night - I was under the impression that her need for a wheelchair was a result of the wounds on her feet and legs that resulted from her fall in her clutter-ridden house. Was she immobile before that? Had she just hoarded herself into a corner?

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2009 19:14:55 GMT -4 @cantienne said:

I missed the reason that Judi tied herself to the her toilet-chair at night - I was under the impression that her need for a wheelchair was a result of the wounds on her feet and legs that resulted from her fall in her clutter-ridden house. Was she immobile before that? Had she just hoarded herself into a corner?

I think they explained she tied herself in to avoid falling into a pile of the garbage while asleep and suffocating. Which is actually what she almost did.

Her daughter posted this over at TWoP as it related to mother's working:

Actually, she drove to her church to park, walked across the street to the metro station using her walker and rode the train downtown and walked from there to the contract office. I can only imagine what people thought as they watched this each day.

She also mentioned that Judi only retired in August of this year so and, I'm guessing, she put up with the pain from the wounds until she arrived at the hospital.

ETA:

I don't know much about counseling, but it seems like there's a lot of tip-toeing and emo handholding, perhaps to the point of coddling. I understand that part of the counseling process is to learn new decision making processes, but I wonder if a sterner tone would be more successful.

I agree though I think the ladies from last night benefited from the coddling method. I think the people from S1 were way too molly-coddled for any real kind of success to be achieved. In fact, I think they were all failures—even the woman who lost her kids over her hoarding. None of her shit was discarded—only moved, in 2,000 boxes, to a storage facility.

[chonies]

LEB, I agree Gail definitely benefited from the "gentle redirection" approach, but Judi...it's hard to tell. She had that blank affect that Augustine had, even though didn't seem *as* blank or as surly.

cantienne, I think her daughter posted something about a vascular condition that Judi already had, but poor personal hygiene and screamingly unsanitary conditions, including vermin, contributed to the ping-pong sized ulcerations on her feet.

[Deleted]

but Judi...it's hard to tell. She had that blank affect that Augustine had, even though didn't seem *as* blank or as surly.

Yeah, I would love to know what the nature of her psychiatric problem is. Even when they did parade the filthy toilet past her, she didn't flinch. No emotion—just flatness like, "oh...there goes the toilet filled with my own years-old excrement...hmm...oh, what a pleasant day it is outside." Whereas Augustine, detached as she was, still managed to summon emotions, even if they were surliness and a sense of entitlement.

[hikertrash]

I just discovered this show, and... whoa. I cannot fathom how far someone would have to descend into madness to be apathetic about living with MOUNTAINS OF SHIT in their house.

I really wanted to smack Augustine a couple of times during her episode. She obviously has mental problems that need to be addressed, but she was just so damned ungrateful about the whole thing. I wish A&E had used the resources for that episode on someone more deserving. A nearly 70-year old woman should not have to be prompted to say 'thank you' to people who are doing her a great service. I've met 3-year olds with more social graces.

Gail saying she felt like she let the teddy bear down was the major WTF moment for me, though. I've only seen these two episodes, so I don't know if anthropomorphism is common amongst hoarders, but maybe that's part of what's going on with these people.

[chonies]

Dec 9, 2009 9:45:07 GMT -4 hikertrash said:

Gail saying she felt like she let the teddy bear down was the major WTF moment for me, though. I've only seen these two episodes, so I don't know if anthropomorphism is common amongst hoarders, but maybe that's part of what's going on with these people.

I have to say, I totally got Gail's apology to the teddy and I'm not a hoarder. I don't think it's anthropomorphism but more of a symbolic or transferring moment, or maybe just a sad nostalgia. She was obviously sentimental, hence her problem with holding on to her parents' things, and I think it was just a concentrated outlet: she was apologizing to the bear because she was apologizing to herself for letting something she had treasured become garbage. I thought it was more of a watershed moment.

The difference for me is that Gail didn't seem like a systematic hoarder. She seemed like someone who inherited a bad situation and was utterly stymied. If I had seen Augustine or Judi or Kerrylea or any other apologize to a teddy bear, my interpretation would be totally different.

[hikertrash]

That's a good point, chonies. I guess I might still see it as a form of attributing human qualities to an inanimate object, if she was indeed using the bear as a sort of stand-in for herself (or her parents, even). Although I guess it'd be more along the lines of the puppets Richard Dreyfuss's character makes his family use in What About Bob?

[lowercase]

I have a doll that I have had since I was three, and it has lived everywhere with me. It's a small, silly little beanbag thing that I *had to* have as we were checking out of a store, and I just love it to pieces. The outfit is all stained, and I want to make a new one for it (essentially just a beanbag body), but I can't bring myself to pull its head out of the old body. Every time I watch this show, I wonder if my inability to dismember Bald Baby is a sign of terrifying things to come.

My mom is a bit like Gail. When my family moved into the house where my parents still live, 31 years ago, my grandmother and her parents came with us. There are several rooms that are still full of their furniture, artwork, and knick-knacks. Up until just a few years ago, my great-grandfather's clothes were still in the closet of the room where he lived, and he died in 1980. The dining room set, which is going on 100 years old (literally) is crumbling and barely functional, but my mom can't bear to part with it. They never throw anything away, so the house is bursting at the seams with five generations' worth of detritus.

Having said that, watching this show makes me feel marginally better about the state of their house. Nary a Depends foothill in sight. Yet.