Hoarders

I will admit that my new guilty pleasure is Hoarders on A&E. Basically, its a look inside the homes of people who hoard...massive piles of clutter everywhere. Its not just clutter, its their entire lives in disarray. Its amazing how alike all these people are deep down, its almost a stereotype. Of course, there are exceptions-like any other stereotype or archetype-but for the most part, these hoarders are cut from a similiar cloth.
I think that if I didn't have that little organizational streak running through me, I might possibly wind up down that path. It really doesn't take much it seems-there is a trigger point for these people-an event that causes them to not throw out stuff. It could be something as traumatic as an illness or death or something as insignificant as throwing out a coupon that they could have used for dinner out. A vast majority of hoarders it seems are women, who tend to be heavy, they feel little control over their lives and relationships, and their finances are in disarray. Its not that they don't care, they don't know where to begin. On top of it they all mention hearing these voices in their heads telling them that if they can't do it right then why bother doing it?
It was a little eye opening for me with the psychologist discussing the characteristics of hoarding and how these people got there. It all boils down to control-if the person feels that they don't have control in their lives, this is the one aspect that they could control. Its the same thinking as people with eating disorders-they can't control the rest of their lives, so they control what they eat (or don't eat). Its not that every person who has control issues in their lives will wind up with an eating disorder or as a hoarder, but the likelihood increases. I will be the first to admit that I am a control freak-I don't really care for that aspect of my personality but I have a hard time letting these just be (especially in my parental role).
The other thing that these hoarders have in common is that attach a certain level of significance to belongings. Its like their worth is wrapped up in their belongings. They feel that if they throw something out, they are throwing out a part of them. I know someone who is now a stay at home mom (and has been for about 10 years now) who still has all her old work clothes from back in the day. Its like they are perfectly preserved in her closet-and stuck in a time warp. I know that I am guilty because I have a whole closet full of clothes that I really don't wear-either I really don't like the outfit, or its not where I am in life, or they don't really fit (just another 5 or 10 pounds to go!). I really don't smile when I see them hanging there and I really have to purge them. Just like I have to purge a lot of stuff in the little man's closet and dresser. His dresser is overflowing and I know he's outgrown some of it too.
The other thing that I was suprised about with a lot of these folks were their eating habits. A vast majority of them were overweight with significant health problems, which their hoarding tendencies just made worse. Its the whole all or nothing principle about diet and exercise (if I can't do it perfectly why do it at all? I didn't work out today, so I am just going to give up). The same thing with their finances-that these folks all seem to have cash flow problems that are not due to resource limits but due to poor organizational skills. They can't find their bills, or what they need to pay them and don't keep track of their payments.
At first I just thought that this was a show about messy homes and maybe learn some cleaning techniques...then I realized that this is a complex psychological issue and my heart kind of goes out to these folks. I would love for the show to follow up with them 6 months or a year down the line to see if they got the help they needed.