Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hoarding

Some people are just flat out nasty, I know that. I also know that in this "not me" world that we live in; every other person seems to have an excuse for whatever perverted, nasty, disgusting, or otherwise deviant behavior that they enjoy doing. Whether it's screwing blondes, drinking entirely too much, not knowing how many biscuits they're supposed to eat, enjoying sex with children or any other destructive behavior that they're quick to label as an addiction.

Last night I was watching something on Discovery that was like a car accident, I was afraid to look and afraid not to look at the same time. The show was about nasty mofos that fill up their homes with so much shit that they can't walk across a room without stepping on two or three televisions or two or three boxes of dishes.........still in the boxes they came in. This phenomenon is called hoarding. Compulsive hoarding is supposedly a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire (and failure to use or discard) a significant amount of possessions; even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary. Compulsive hoarding causes significant clutter and impairment to basic living activities, including mobility, cooking, cleaning, showering and sleeping. A person who engages in compulsive hoarding is commonly said to be a nasty mofo (as far as I'm concerned) or "pack rat", in reference to that animal's apparent fondness for material objects.
I've always been a firm believer that originally there were 10 dwarfs and not 7, that lived in that house where Snow White ended up staying. But that seven of those dwarfs told Cheesy, Funky and Nasty to get the hell outta their house!!!

34 comments:

  1. Hi Reggie! I saw a segment on Oprah about a older woman who hoarded so much stuff, that she and her husband couldnt sit on their couch, or sleep in their bed! The crap was piled 5 feet tall--no exageration! Their children couldnt even come over to their parents house! So Oprah arranged an intervention and by the time they sorted through all the crap, they were able to fill a huge warehouse full of the good stuff to sell! There was 75 tons of stuff in her 3000 sq ft house. The woman nearly had a heart attack when she saw the size of the warehouse and how much stuff had actually been in her house!! Eventually, they had a giant "garage sale" and earned about (I think) $20,000 selling all the stuff! She was completely out of control!

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  2. ive seen that show... this one lady had yogurt in her feezer that was 5 years old!!
    YOGURT DUDE!!!

    AAAAAAAAAACCCCCCK!!!

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  3. Anna Renee she was apparently completely out of her mind.......I just hate that we've gotta label this type of nastiness as a disorder.

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  4. Michelle I'll bet that yogurt had like a whole civilization growing in it or something. I mean nothing sits that long without growing all types of fuzz and shit all over it!!!

    I'm partial to Breyers, but I'd prefer that it at least be within the "best eaten by" date.

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  5. well... she figured it was in the freezer... so it had no expiry date! lol

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  6. This woman on the A&E show, Hoarders, had dead cat skeletons under all her junk. When they found the decomposed cats, she says "Oh, I wondered what happened to him!"

    SMH

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  7. Jem she's a sad and sorry wench. What type of person has animal skeletons in their home?!?

    That's some nasty shit.

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  8. Reggie,

    I have watched this whole series. We have a hoarder in our family. The individual doesn't do food. Just items that make no sense to anyone else except them. We have tried to step in and clear things out and they put up a major resistance.

    We've been discussing ways to get help for our folk. But it is not that easy because the emotional attachment to the items is not logical-at least not to us.

    I was the first person to notice this tendency and when I mentioned to everyone else-they thought that I was the one who was off in the head. It has taken the rest of my family a long time to accept that this is really the problem.

    When I watched the first show, I called up everyone and told them to look at it. Afterwards it became clear to them. That was the first major hurdle we had to cross.

    Are we going to help for the person-yes. I've been looking into the situation and it is really more than just being unable to keep a clean environment. In this case, the person who hoards could come to your home and clean it from top to bottom with no problem. If you did the white glove test-you'd be pressed to find a streak anywhere.

    We use to sneak things out to throw them away. And we learned that if we did that-they knew it and it would be a major problem among us. So we stopped using that particular approach just to keep the peace.

    Just sitting here sharing this has made my head begin to hurt. It is a problem that is not easily solved.

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  9. I don't know what to think about this post y'all,because sometimes I think our society is too quick to label any behavior a new disorder.

    But I tend to think like some of the old folk who use to label some of my behavior as being a sob(sorry old boy).

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  10. MsLadyDeborah I can only imagine the frustration and anguish of having a loved one in this position.

    Good luck with that.

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  11. @MissLadyDeborah: Thanks for sharing that. I do share the feelings of other folks who have commented here - we are too quick to label EVERYTHING a disorder. However, this is real and the hoarding is just a symptom of a deeper issue. Depression is usually at the top of the list. These people need help, not ridicule.

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  12. Oh I don't know KST, a little ridicule is good for the soul.

    None of us are beyond that, even crazy people.

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  13. I've actually been in hoarder's homes. The worse case was the mother of a close friend of mine. The house was so full that you couldn't see the windows and there was a PATH throughout the house. Literally a fvcking path from the front door to where ever you were trying to go. You get off the path, you fvcked and in the middle of shyt. You could get lost in that bytch if you got off the fvcking path. Crazy.

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  14. Do u go 2 sleep at night and wake up in the mornin?lol Let society tell it everyone has a disorder. So sh t is just nasty. If u have a obessive disorder with keeping a clean house then you need to be hog tide and onley let out when it's time to go to work. I'm exaggerating of course, but people need to stop making excuses for nast ass people. Hoarding makes it sound like it's okay. Good Read!

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  15. Thanks Champ.

    If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to see an obsessive compulsive desire to clean; as opposed to this shit.

    Nasty is as nasty does.

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  16. I'm a messy person but this here is beyond messy. This is wrong. Someone needs to clean that shit up.

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  17. Isn't it Angie?!? I understand that there are people out there that are disturbed; but everything being equal, I'd rather see something disturbed towards the other way.....over obsesses with cleanliness.

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  18. That's what I said Eva.

    Whether you knew or not, I'm a trifle anal about cleanliness.....some might call it a sickness. But I refuse to live in filth!!!

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  19. I tend not to believe that this is a REAL disorder ... I seriously put that $#!+ down to being lazy and nasty.

    You're upset so you save stuff you know you need to be throwing away?

    I can understand not cleaning for a couple weeks - shoot I'll even grant you a month ... but come the hell on now! junk everywhere? flies everywhere? and who knows what else lies beneath all that grime and dirt???!

    I think people need to start the new 12 point plan and it starts with honest admission:

    HI ... MY NAME IS DODOHEAD AND I'M A NASTY PERSON WHO WON'T ADMIT THAT I'M LAZY!

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  20. I'll tell you this Trinitee Sees, it's always bothered me to see dishes in my sink or clothes on my floor. I couldn't live with someone as nasty as this.

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  21. I agree with you Reggie ... my worst is not even some of these people's best. It is scary that there are actually people who continue to choose to live like this - and make no mistake, it is a choice - and it is annoyingly sad that there are others who continue to give them a free pass with the need to 'syndrome' and 'disorder' everything under the dang sun!!!

    EPYCK PHAIL! ;)

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  22. I disagree with you all! This is a very real & a tragically sad disorder (mental illness). To suggest that these people choose to have these illnesses is cruel. Would you say that of a person with epilepsy, diabetes, cancer etc? I think not! This is an illness of the brain.
    I have worked very closely with people whom suffer from all kinds of mental illness. Unless you have had first hand experience, or know someone whom suffers from these type illnesses or walked a mile in their shoes... who are you to judge.
    What you see is a very real & sad symptom of an illness, that I can tell you the sufferers themselves despise.What you see are images but.. you nothing of the the person behind the illness.
    A little compassion would be nice..mental illness is a relentlessly cruel disorder.

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  23. Trinitee Sees I am the only person that lived in my parents home growing up that doesn't smoke like industry, I find that habit disgusting. I rarely drink and my only discernable habit (other than being an asshole) is the coffee that I must have daily. It is what it is. I think we're a little too quick to label something an addiction in this country whether it's smoking, drinking, drugs or poonanny (sorry Tiger).

    I'll never forget that when I was growing up my father, who drank to excess, claimed that he wasn't an alcoholic; that he was indeed a drunk. To him the difference was that drunks don't have to go to those meetings that alcoholics go to.

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  24. Katherine I was hoping that you would come back. I saw that you left a comment and then deleted it before I could see it.

    The rules on my blog are this, your opinion is your opinion; and thus, is just as valid as anyones.........including mine. I have never even pretended to be perfect or even all knowing. I post my opinions and move on from there, if everyone agreed with me there would be no fun in this.

    Who am I to judge?!? A guy whose opinion is just as valid as anyone else's. It is what it is. There are people afflicted by mental illness in my family; maybe one day that's in my future as well. Who knows?!? I will say this, there must be something wrong with the person that is okay with living like this, is it normal are they mentally ill?!? I don't know that it's that serious. I know some nasty mofos.....and I know some peopole that are just a tad off kilter.

    But it was nice to get an emotional response out of you Katherine. Next time, please leave your comment and we can talk about it......okay?

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  25. Yes we all have a right to an opinion. And my response was written in defense of all those that suffer from mental illness. I was angered when I read your post & the following comments. It saddened me to hear the lack of compassion in the comments. We know not what these people endure, we know not of their history, of their lives ... so it is my opinion that we should not heckle or judge them. There is too much sadness & cruelty in this world for us to be adding to it!

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  26. Sometimes, we go overboard with labelling everything as an "illness" or "disorder"! Some things aren't illnesses or disorders but laziness, and greediness, or fear, which needs to be overcome. I dont think it's a lack of compassion as much as its a swift kick in the rear, that the commenters want for these people! That lady on Oprah's show got that swift kick (figuratively speaking) by the guy Oprah hired to help her. He gently but firmly took the crap out of her hands, put it in a warehouse, fixed her house and hopefully to this day she's still happy and her house clean! She simply refused to let go, she wasnt mentally broken! Now this is not to say that there arent some issues that do need to be labelled, like pedophilia by our Catholic priests! Im not trying to offend.

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  27. Katherine, my father, a great man to me used to say that if you're looking for sympathy; then you'll find it in the dictionary between shit and syphyllis.

    If I've ever given you the impression that I'm a nice or amiable person, then I apologize, nothing could be further from the truth.

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  28. Anna Renee I think we are a little too quick to label things like this. I'm willing to bet that the woman with the foul home........started hoarding again. If it made sense to her to do it originally, then I have a hard time believing that she would want to make that simple change.

    Maybe it's not within her to do so, maybe she's just nasty as hell?!?

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  29. OK Reggie ... I hear you! I guess you just hit a nerve with me because what I saw in these pictures was something very different to what you & your other readers saw. My experiences lead me feel as I do & to my opinion as do your experiences. So with no hard feelings I say, this is probably not the place for me. I wish you well Reggie but even though you come across as being as hard as nails.. I don't believe that you really are!

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  30. I have a young cousin who grew up in foster homes and when he lived with his mother he moved a lot.
    This kid would hold on to EVERYTHING.
    It's taken about three years for me to break this kid's habit of hoarding and to let him become adjusted to a more stable lifestyle.
    Maybe these people have problems rooted in their childhood.

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