Some people don't need any more stuff

[Glenda]

http://www.randomthink.net/misc/ebay/


Example:

[K8-EEE]

1. Holy SHIT!!

That is one of the scariest things I've ever seen. I really feel bad for the daughter!! I can't even breathe looking at those pix. That is WILD!! I wonder how many batshit crazy ebay addicts there are?? It's way too bad when they have kids though...I think this girl's sense of humor keeps her sane.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. As I understand, this "hoarding" impulse is considered a

psychiatric disorder. The girl is right: her mother is crazy.

[Glenda]

3. I saw this Dr on Oprah recently...

From the following clinic (Dr Tolin listed at the bottom):

http://www.instituteofliving.org/ADC/current_research_studies.htm

He talked about compulsive hoarding as a disorder, and it looks like they treat it and study it at the clinic in the link.

Just think, we now have so much stuff that it is a treatable disorder.

Glenda

[belle]

8. Actually, hoarding behaviors don't have to go with consumerism...

In fact, some of the most miserly people I know act like this. Often people who lived through the Depression or a war. You don't need to buy stuff off eBay. You can even live "off the grid." You just need to never, ever, throw anything away; and, you, too, can find yourself living in a situation like that. I think my great-uncle did. Supposedly there were stacks of newspapers dating back for decades. Bits of metal, "useful" odds and ends that never get used. And food, well, you didn't want to know about it.

[Philostopher]

12. It's the same basic dysfunction ...

that causes people to hoard animals -- you're right, it's a switch that never gets turned off in their brains.

I mean, piling stuff up is at least less unsanitary than hoarding a hundred cats, but it's the same psychological mechanism, apparently, or a related one ... probably a really radical form of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

People who hoard anything, be it figurines, magazines or house cats, are really difficult to treat. You can haul all the stuff out, or take the animals away, and if nobody monitors these people, they go right back to the behaviors.

I don't know if there's anything being done to try to figure out why this happens, or if there's any way to treat them -- the biggest problem, I think, is that legally these are seen as 'property issues' instead of mental health issues. It's sad -- I had a friend in high school whose mother did this stuff. She had to break down and have me come to her house once to help her carry something out -- it was a display for a science fair or something too big for her to carry herself -- and she was mortified that we had to walk through a sort of maze, a two-foot wide path between stacks of newspapers, magazines, Christmas decorations, furniture, clothing ...

[yardwork]

13. I have a little bit of this problem

It is difficult for me to throw things away. I feel a little panicky when I do so - I'm serious.

It extends to everything. I feel a pang when I delete an email (I might want to read that again - I might need that link, etc.).

Fortunately, I have a spouse who is both kind and firm. He understands my feelings, but he is ruthless when he has to be. Every year or so he makes me go through all the magazines I've been hoarding. He recycles magazines once a week whether I have read them or not. Over time, I've stopped buying a lot of magazines.

I don't buy that much. I have a problem throwing things away. If I lived alone, I might get like these weird old ladies.

[foreigncorrespondent]

4. Bloody nora!!!!

That mother really does have a buying problem as well as a hording problem, doesn't she?

[Lorien]

5. OMG!!

Those poor people! That's the worst case of hording/ shopaholism that I think I've ever seen! I hope somebody called Oprah or Dr. Phil or whomever...they need some intervention!

[alexisfree]

10. eewwww!!!!

look how dusty it is!!!! is like someone spread the vacuum bag all over!!, besides so full of useless things..oh my gsh I think I need to breath. I get sick in a small places..got to go...:scared:

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

6. Hoooohoo WOW

Looking at the fridge with magnets, I thought, surely this can't be *that* bad. Probably just someone with lots of 'collections.' I've met people like this lady before, though - it's really freaky.

Another thing that always baffles me about hoarding types - they always seem to be hard up for cash, yet don't see the obvious solution. Start selling that crap off (what can actually be sold, I mean) and make some money. But try and suggest that bit of logic and you will meet resistance. "No, I can't sell that!" (Even though they have probably 50 boxes of said item gathering dust.)

Then again, hoarding to the point of suffocating your own living space is really more of a mental issue, I suppose. You can't be thinking too logically to end up drowning out your entire house with boxes of crap.

This lady's house is pretty awful, but I have seen worse. I only qualify what I have seen as 'worse,' because it wasn't as 'clean' as this lady's house.

[belle]

7. omfg. RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAAAAAYYYY!!!!...

Actually, i once actually visited someone who lived in a house like that. it was her dad, not her mother, and she was older, but otherwise the dynamics were pretty similar. The place was...pretty bad. I don't know if it was as bad as this, but it was remarkable. One whole room was completely inaccessible, because there was a *wall* of boxes blocking the way. The stairs were narrow and difficult to traverse because there were stacks of books piled all along the side nearest the wall. And the woman was living in her childhood room, and it looked like *nothing* had been thrown out since her early grade-school years, if ever. Stuffed animals, boxes of old toys, books...the bed was not clear. It was very disturbing.

I had given her a ride home from upstate; they offered to take me out to lunch to thank me. When the father finally descended the stairs (very carefully) to join us, he must've noticed the expression on my face.

"I collect things," he said, deadpan.

"I noticed," I said, equally deadpan.

[barb162]

9. reminds me of my sister-in-law,a compulsive shopper

who buys JUNK morning, noon and night

[alexisfree]

11. no shower for days!!!!!!!