- Jul 1, 2010
- 976
- 81
- 151
Has anyone seen this programme? I watched a new episode last night and could not believe my eyes. I thought I understood hoarding. Although I am not one, I am not the tidiest of people and raising a family I have often observed the situation where everyone comes in to the house and just drops their belongings in the hall, until there is a trail of items littering the floor between front door and staircase, half way up the stairs as well. I have had teenagers who could hardly walk across their bed room floors for CDs, computer games, gym shoes, books etc. I have seen beds that you couldn't get into because they were so piled up with clothes mixed up clean and dirty laundry etc.
I think I understand how people who have had to deal with loss sometimes derive comfort and security from surrounding themselves with possessions, far more than anyone could ever need or use. Last nights episode hit an all time low. A middle aged mother, with health issues, lived in what had been a very nice house with two teenage children. They might as well have been living on the town rubbish dump. No one had taken out the rubbish for months. They dropped their rubbish on the floor and just walked over it. All kinds of food cartons and uneaten food everywhere, a bathroom that was indescribable, kitchen running alive with cockroaches and even a nest of black widow spiders. The mother injected for diabetes and just dropped the used syringes on the floor!
Facing eviction and losing her children, the mother was quite content to allow a cleaning team, in Haz.chem suits to clean around her and fumigate the place whilst she lay on the bed. My question is this. Why would any self-respecting person allow themselves to sink this low, and why would they let anyone else, (a) clear up the mess and (b) televise it? Why did I sit watching it??
I think I understand how people who have had to deal with loss sometimes derive comfort and security from surrounding themselves with possessions, far more than anyone could ever need or use. Last nights episode hit an all time low. A middle aged mother, with health issues, lived in what had been a very nice house with two teenage children. They might as well have been living on the town rubbish dump. No one had taken out the rubbish for months. They dropped their rubbish on the floor and just walked over it. All kinds of food cartons and uneaten food everywhere, a bathroom that was indescribable, kitchen running alive with cockroaches and even a nest of black widow spiders. The mother injected for diabetes and just dropped the used syringes on the floor!
Facing eviction and losing her children, the mother was quite content to allow a cleaning team, in Haz.chem suits to clean around her and fumigate the place whilst she lay on the bed. My question is this. Why would any self-respecting person allow themselves to sink this low, and why would they let anyone else, (a) clear up the mess and (b) televise it? Why did I sit watching it??
