I actually sat down and watched a repeat episode of Oprah last night. Now I am not generally a devout fan, but do watch an episode here and there when there is nothing on and I have had too much caffeine. Last night she interviewed a number of people who hoard stuff. I am not talking about that pile of manky old t-shirts that we all have in the back of our cupboards that we love too much to get rid of but are too mouldy to wear. No this takes hoarding to another level. These people have a mental disease that takes therapy and drugs to get rid of, it's actually a form of extreme 'perfectionism', where people get so paralysed with wanting everything to be perfect and in its place that they can't do anything at all. I had NO idea that this is a disease that people suffer from, recognised as a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Check this out for more information.
To get an idea of what their houses look like, watch the program "How Clean is Your House?" You can't help but wonder if these people are well in the head.. turns out they aren't.
But what astounded me more is that people not only hoard clutter, they hoard animals as well. Oprah showed footage from their own crew and other programs on Animal Planet and channels that deal with animal welfare. It made me physically ill to see how these animals are living. These people don't live on huge farms where there is space for 81 cats to roam around, they live in flats and suburban houses. There is nowhere for the poor animals to go and no room for them to relieve themselve except on shelves, floors, counters, beds, showers, each other... And it's not only cats and small dogs, it extends to thousands of birds in tiny cages, goats, horses, fish, sheep.. pretty much whatever people have a fetish for collecting basically to fill a void in their life.
Get more information here and here and here. Or here are the Google results on a search.
I am astounded, it never fails to amaze me how strange and sick people are.
posted by Cat Murray @ 12:09
1 Comments:
Had heard about one person in CT who kept many, many white mice. That seemed really odd, but had no idea that animal hoarding was prevalent to such an extent.
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