Hoarders

I appreciate the guest post, Lindsay Valdez

Ever since I invested in satellite TV I have been watching an absurd amount of television. I was never a huge TV fan before and got the satellite TV, that I got for the Cable television sports packages, mostly for my husband but now it has turned into a gift for both of us. My favorite show to watch on the satellite TV has to be the documentary show Hoarders. I use to occasionally watch Intervention but that got old fast. I work in a treatment facility and deal with addiction all day. It does not take long to be burnt out and start seeing every case the same. The show Hoarders is different though. I have never dealt with the mental illness of hoarding in person and only studied about it briefly in school. For those not familiar with the illness hoarding is exactly what it sounds like. It prevents people from getting rid of things and they acquire too much, sometimes to dangerous levels. Sometimes it is a general hoarding of things, old calendars, keepsakes, just things that you would throw out but something prevents from the getting rid of most anything. Other times the hoarding is very specific items. My favorite episode featured a woman who hoarded food. She was incapable of throwing away rotting and spoiled food and her home got so bad she was in danger of being evicted.