I love watching the show Hoarders as much as I love watching Intervention. But both are based on the idea that these types of behavior are the result of diseases – and by disseminating this view they may be causing more harm than good.
Unfortunately, substance abusers are already doomed – the idea that their problems stem from disease is already believed throughout the country, and has a multibillion dollar industry relying on the furtherance of that lie, along with countless government workers and regulatory agencies which rely on it as well, and enforce a monopoly on “treating” these poor souls. So for the foreseeable future, substance abusers will be filled with self-defeating lies and self-fulfilling prophecies of an incurable disease, powerlessness, and relapse which leads them to more misery and more treatment for a behavior which they could choose to end at any given time.
Fortunately for hoarders, there is still time for us to save them from the same fate of substance abusers. There is no institutionalized hoarding treatment industry and associated government dollars and jobs at stake yet (or at least if there is, it’s not as significant). The idea of hoarding has been around for a while, but little known to the public. I worry though, that just as AA member Marty Mann launched a publicity/propaganda campaign to gain acceptance of the idea that substance abuse is the result of a disease rather than poor choices, there is someone or some organization currently pushing for public acceptance of hoarding as a disease. If this campaign is successful, we will have a new class of lifelong victims on our hands. Don’t doubt that it’s a campaign – 2 weekly television shows dedicated to hoarders have popped up in the last year and people are talking about it everywhere.
Hoarding is no doubt a puzzling problem. There are certainly psychological issues involved in it. But it’s probably more a philosophical and value based issue than anything else – as is addiction. The danger I see coming is identical to the addiction issue – the “experts” on hoarding don’t know what kind of treatment is effective, yet they insist that treatment is needed. They don’t know what causes it, yet they spread theories about the amygdala and other parts of the brain being the cause. What set me off about this was an episode of Dr Oz I watched a few weeks ago and the disease theory he offered was identical to one I’ve heard about addiction (the ‘learning’ theory). The amazing part is that after offering up this “medical” explanation he continued on by showing that the way to treat a hoarder is to go through their things with them, one by one, question whether they need these things, and push them to make the decision to part with things. What is it about this treatment that requires a doctor? NOTHING. Is there a surgery involved? What is it that will change the hoarder’s habits? Thoughts. Decisions. Value based choices. Moving on to other, more fulfilling behaviors. You can’t get rid of cancer like that.
Please resist the idea that hoarding is a disease. Please resist the fallacious arguments that will be presented about it. For ANYTHING that a human being does, we can scan the brain, and see some activity in a certain region. Such information alone does not amount to a sound argument that the behavior is the result of a disease and beyond our volitional control. Hoarders can improve their lives the same way everyone else does – by choosing and acting upon proper values. That is the truth and we must not let it be lost to the medical authorities who seek to expand their markets by monopolizing every human problem one by one.
-Steven Slate
I feel like this is a extremly strong opinion with no actual facts to support the opinions being shown. The lack of information on treatment for haorders is exactly why we need to be looking into this and not just brushing it off.
or not.
The difference between a hoarder and someone who just doesn’t make good decisions based on “proper” values is in the way they treat the hoard. I am a recovering hoarder. I have trouble throwing things away not because of bad decision making but because I have attached human conditions to the things I need to throw away. I feel as though there is some kind of “feelings” attached to things like gum wrappers not being tossed away with the gum that it is partnered with. Intellectually I know that the gum wrapper can’t “feel” left alone, but I cannot shake the idea that it has true feelings of loss or being left behind. Many hoarders, like me, have other issues that can include things like OCD, Bi-Polar disorder with or without drug/alcohol addictions. Some mutilate themselves as well. There are also different kinds of hoarding. Some people hoard animals, some hoard food, many will hoard the same type of thing buying it over and over, like shoes or books or flea-market items. Many people used to believe that if someone lived through the depression in the 1920’s this could cause someone to hoard. But since so many of us were never alive in that era this is not true. You make it sound as though someone is looking for an excuse to not clean their houses. Let me assure you, I clean my house. But it is a struggle every minute of everyday. I have trouble holding down jobs because my thought processes are so cluttered that I have trouble focusing on simple tasks at hand. I am easily distracted and disorganized mentally which makes it next to impossible to stay organized physically, always forgetting about the thing I was working on and starting something new to the top of the work pile until I become so overwhelmed I have a break down and cannot move forward without a great deal of help. It is exhausting both physically and mentally. The point of going through each item with a hoarder is not just to get rid of their hoard, but to try and make the hoarder understand how to help themselves. Anyone can go in and clean the hoard, but it will come right back once the help is gone. The more the hoarder is educated in how to help in their own recovery the better chances are that they will get better. But like any disease, that help needs to continue through therapy. The fact that most hoarders fail, even with help, should be enough to classify this as a disease of the mind rather than someone who is not trained in the fine arts of “proper” values in decision making!
Hi Diane,
I’m sorry I offended you with the term “proper values”, I understand it can come off as judgmental, and I probably should’ve used better language to make my points. However, I don’t think we’re that far apart on our view of this, with the exception of the “disease” issue.
You said:
“The point of going through each item with a hoarder is not just to get rid of their hoard, but to try and make the hoarder understand how to help themselves.”
That was my understanding from what I’ve seen on the shows mentioned above. That by practicing thinking differently while trying to make these decisions, you would learn new habits of thought and behavior.
Quite frankly, I don’t care if your house is clean or not – I don’t think you’re a bad person for it, or anything bad about you or any other person who does these things. My house is often quite messy. What I don’t understand, is why you’re so willing to grasp onto calling it a disease when you just confirmed that it’s a cognitive issue – it’s about what you think about the items in question, and changing it is about thinking differently about those things. I’m not sure how thinking of it as a disease helps that. It seems like a giant distraction from the process of change.
Thanks,
Steven