Hoarding: Buried Alive
“Hoarding is the excessive collection of items, along with the inability to discard them. Hoarding often creates such cramped living conditions that homes may be filled to capacity, with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter. Some people also collect animals, keeping dozens or hundreds of pets often in unsanitary conditions” (Mayo Clinic). Hoarding seems to be a growing problem that affects millions of people in the United States today. It can affect anyone, ranging from a thirteen year- old child anywhere to an eighty year- old. Behind every problem, is a cause and consequences that go along with it. Unless you are a hoarder yourself, you may not fully understand what exactly causes someone to become a hoarder, the consequences that may arise from having your life affected by hoarding, or the possible solutions that are out there to help over come this compulsive disorder.
Compulsive hoarding has been a problem affecting millions of people worldwide for decades now. For some, hoarding begins at a young age, and for others, it begins later on in life. The exact cause of why someone may become a hoarder is unknown. It has been suggested that hoarding is far more likely to affect someone who has a family history of those who have been affected. It has also been suggested that one’s upbringing may also trigger them to begin hoarding. For example, if my parents were hoarders, and I was raised in a house where compulsive hoarding took place, I would most likely follow in my parent’s footsteps and begin hoarding as well. One of the most mistaken assumptions about hoarders is that they are lazy. Compulsive hoarders are not lazy, nor are they weak and unable to clean up. This disorder is psychol...
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...ies such as your refrigerator, kitchen sink and stove so you can access dishes and food.
• Keep in touch with those who are helping you to get better.
• Keep your well being in the back of your mind, always.
• Take baby steps: Someone who has a problem with hoarding is not going to resolve their problem overnight. It is going to take time, and you need to take small steps so you don’t overwhelm yourself, become stressed and begin to hoard again. You want to continue to solve your problem, not recreate it.
• Stay focused and remember the goals you have chosen.
Compulsive hoarding is a disorder that affects one’s brain; no one should ever blame himself or herself for a problem they can’t control. With a problem like hoarding, there is always a solution. There will always be people around to help you solve the problem, whether it is your family or your therapist.
I agree with his assessment about society’s throw away mentality due to the fact that I have seen it myself first hand. Recently I helped my sister move out of her dorm room at NAU and I was horrified to see all the things and edible food she was just dumping and what was worse, she wasn’t the only one. All of the kids were getting rid of perfectly good items in the dumpster, so it’s no wonder that dumpsters near college campuses are one of Eighner’s favorite places to scavenge. In his article on page 3, Eighner elaborates on student’s wasteful habits, “but in the case of discards from student apartments, the answer may be that the item was discarded through carelessness, ignorance or wastefulness.” I believe agree with Eighner that some people have a pack rat mentality while others just throw it away. My parents are a good example of this and I think it has something to do with the way that they were raised. My mom is a pack rat, holding on to everything as long as possible and giving away to charity what she doesn’t want anymore. She squeezes every last drop out of a toothpaste tube or a shampoo bottle, while my dad will throw it away half empty. My mom was raised in a single parent household, where money was tight and you used what you had… my dad however, was raised in a more affluent home and money flowed more freely. In fact, my mom does her own dumpster diving fairly regularly in our garbage can by rescuing stuff out of the garbage that my dad has thrown away, including belts, pants, shirts and hardly worn tennis shoes. She doesn’t keep the goods, but instead gives it to Goodwill or the church clothing drive. My dad is her antithesis and is definitely part of the throw-away society. My dad has little sentiment attached to stuff and like Eichner mentioned on page 6, “knows there is plenty more where what we came from.” After reflecting on
1. The main idea is not only that owning stuff is not the key to happiness, it’s also that consumers today own more than they need to thrive which directly impacts the environment. Hill illustrates the environmental impact by showing statistics of global warming today versus the past century, and how consumerism is leading to a hotter climate. Hill debunks claims of buying happiness by discussing a study where stress hormones spike to their highest when people are managing their personal belongings. Hill’s most prominent example that consumerism is not the answer is himself, as he discusses some of the most stressful times of his life being right after coming into a large sum of money and buying whatever he fancied. When Hill concludes his article, he states that “I have less—and enjoy more. My space is small. My life is big” (213).
You may cling onto your favourite fashion magazines, seize the sea shells you once collected as a child, even nestle notebooks from high school, however compulsive hoarding is much more than this… it’s a severe anxiety disorder. Many fail to realise the severity of this desolated illness. Hoarding can have detrimental effects whethe...
Hoarding is an addiction that is both socially debilitating and alarmingly enigmatic. While compulsive hoarding is classified as it’s own respective disorder, it is also a rather extreme form of addiction. Often kept under wraps and undiagnosed, attention is seldom brought to the secret lives of hoarders.
It is an obsession and a disease. This is why animal hoarding needs to be taken more seriously. 250,000 animals fall captive to animal hoarding each year (ASPCA.org). It is not only the life of the animal we are looking at, it is the life of a person as well. If animal hoarding continues to go unnoticed many more animals’ lives will be put in danger.
Animal hoarding is an issue in every division of society around the world (Donaghey 2011). Whether rich or poor, there may still be an animal hoarder living right next door (Donaghey 2011). In some situations there may be obvious signs that a person is a hoarder; however, others live seemingly regular lives to the public eye and the problem is growing. Animal hoarding is a growing problem because of the lack of understanding of the issue and lack of action.
Levenkron, S. (1991). Treating & Understanding Crippling Habits. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders. New York, NY: Warner Books.
Although homelessness is widespread and almost next to the catastrophic global hunger problems, it can be brought under control and its effect reduced to a greater percentage. By simply tracking the root causes of low wages and the lack of affordable housing as well as improving other support systems like housing vouchers and health care, homelessness can be solved.
Compulsive hoarding has been universally defined by researchers as a chronic behavioral syndrome that is categorized by three unique qualities: the extreme retention and failure to dispose of an abundant quantity of useless objects, living environments so condensed with clutter that it compromises day-to-day living for its occupants, and finally a significant provocation of anxiety or distress caused by the hoarding (Franks et al. 79). Although the definition of compulsive hoarding is universally accepted, the cau...
We always hear "do not litter!" or "throw your litter in the bins", maybe some of you bored to hear that yet we still do not throw it in the correct place. Litter is a serious habit problem to just throw away objects on the ground or leave them lying on the ground, instead of putting them in the garbage can. In Indonesia, the amount of litter is 175.000 ton/day and this is increasing every day. But we don't have to see that far, just look around us, our campus, Sanata Dharma University is still facing the littering problems. Each day, although there are various spots of bins and it is never full yet there are many litters lying in the floor, you can see the student hall as the evidence that even though it has 10 spots of bins, we still find people throwing their litter everywhere.
...t initially harm the animals, but are only trying to help. It is considered abuse by which the owner fails to provide food, water, sanitation, and veterinary care to the animal (PETA, 2014, pp. 1). Most hoarders keep an unusual number of pets because they suffer emotion distress of a tragic event that has happened in his or her life. Animal hoarders don’t realize the suffering they put their animals through until it’s too late (Animal hoarding, N.D., pp. 1). The animals do, however suffer from lung disease, pulmonary disease, along with many other diseases (Hoarding, 2014, pp.1). Obsessive hoarding consumes time, money, and emotion of the person. Victims of this disorder won’t ask for help in which they are afraid that they are going to be accused or judged by their actions. They rarely seek treatment unless they are motivated to do so (The pet issue, 2012, pp. 5).
When most people hear the word recycling they think of plastic water bottles, milk jugs, or even old paper that they can reuse, but this is not necessarily the case anymore. Scientists and researchers have discovered a new form of recycling that is going to help better the environment and it can even help make people money! Smokers around the world do not think about recycling their used cigarette butts, but this new form of recycling has changed some of their minds on this subject. Recycling has been a major environmental issue, but most people have forgotten about it or they just do not care for it anymore. Paper recycling dates back to as far as 400 B.C. Some people even say that the early Romans recycled their bronze coins so that they
Do you know that there are about three trillion pounds of garbage on Earth? Sadly, these pieces of garbage kill animals when they eat the garbage because the garbage has a lot of harmful pathogens which sometimes give them serious diseases. Even the air pollution in the landfill can also harm the animals which can be a real danger to them because they can die or suffer in pain. If people recycle, then it wouldn't create this problem which is going on the world. People should recycle because it saves energy, reduces landfills, and saves money.
Hoarding is a mental illness which leads its victims to live in squalor. Hoarding is a form of obsessive compulsive disorder. This is commonly referred to as OCD. OCD is a mental illness that causes obsessions which lead to repetitive behavior. In contrast, minimalism is based on not having a multitude of things. Minimalism promotes a clear mind. This tool is based on reducing things that cause stress. Theoretically, less stress puts an ease on the mind. The tool of minimalism is also used to gain better awareness. Through awareness comes a better understanding of situations. As a minimalist, having less stuff can lead to being more focused on the important things. Things such as relationships, health, dreams and passions. Minimalists only own things that add value to their
However like most people, my relationship with money can still be improved. I do have moments when I may go on a spending spree like this week when I want to relieve myself from stressful situations. I believe it would be more beneficial to channel my stress in a more constructive manner rather than be impulsive when buying things. By the end of this week, I had mixed feelings when I realized how much I spent. I was aware of how much I was spending but, I was also aware that I don’t generally spend this much. Even though I felt somewhat guilty, I know that I will continue to save money as a way to pay up for all the spending I did this