[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I'm bearing my soul to you guys right now.

But the show Hoarders is one of my guilty pleasures.

I'm sorry. But I need help.

Please give me some extra toasty Cheeze-Its.

I used to be right there with you.

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I loved that show. I don't think they make it anymore? I know Matt Paxton is no longer on the show. There are also some crappy imitations.

One of the doctors, Michael Tompkins, was a real favorite of mine. I felt like he was a really good doc, very empathetic. There was one episode in particular where I just thought he handled the person unbelievably well.

It is always shot/cut in the same way - you see a person who usually doesn't understand how out of touch with reality they are, they promise to do their best and ccoperate, they eventually hit a point where they go backwards, then they go completely off the deep end (sometimes violently), there's a "come to Jesus" moment of some sort, and then - SURPRISE! - the last 12 minutes or so, they get their shit together and there's a semi-happy ending/reveal. And then they show the epilogue and 90% of the time, they've refused all help and gone back into the shitter.

The reason I'm interested in this topic and watched the show was because I had a relative who was a hoarder who sadly died literally buried in her hoard. It was pretty traumatic. My uncle found her, but we came up a week or two later to help clean out the condo she was living in. Even seeing it in real life and watching dozens and dozens of episodes of the show, it's still hard to comprehend.

I was always fascinated and impressed by how the doctors and even the clean up crews treated the hoarders with empathy in a way that I am not sure I could do. I have been visited places with a fraction of the trash/pet feces and the smell alone was overwhelming.