...not even start" variety); and a sense of being completely overwhelmed by life (hoarders aren't exactly known for teaching their kids how to break a task into smaller, accomplishable pieces). That, plus my mother's voice in my head ("Everybody else knows how to do it. You're just really lazy") have made figuring out this home maintenance thing an uphill climb. Here's the thing, though. As my personal life completely imploded over the last year or so, I began to realize how much living in chaos affects my outlook and stress level. Even if I have a well-developed case of hoarder's child clutter blindness, at some level I do register the mess and feel stressed by it. And so, fifteen years after leaving my mother's home, I set about really figuring out how to address this issue once and for all. Here are some of the highlights of what I've learned. 1. Cut yourself some slack. As a culture, we view people who don't keep their houses clean in a truly negative light. I really struggled to let go of viewing my messiness as a deep, personal flaw. What worked for me was to take a deep breath and replace my mother's voice ("What's wrong with you?") with something I would say to a friend in the same situation (usually, "Do you realize how much you've already gotten done today? No wonder you're tired"). Repeat about a million times, and you'll be on your way. 2. Have less stuff. Some children of hoarders go the stark minimalist route. Some, like me, just struggle with having a bit too...
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...You may also have the conflict of this hoarders spends damaging the family. As a hoarder you are just spending away. Buying shoes you don't need, Recycled items, and just a bunch of possessions to add to your piles. However as mentioned above you don't realize your budget so your money situation becomes unstable. Leaving your family to stress and feel a burden on them to make up for the money you spend frantically. If your a hoarder with a family and are married, matters with family ties may be even worse. Your children may be too embarrassed to have company due to the fact that their house is so over taken by un valuable objects. Children being too embarrassed about having company can lead to isolation, helplessness, and even resentment....
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...impairment in functioning caused by the hoarding” (Frost & Hartl, 1996). My sister and I lived with a hoarder from the moment we were born, until we were old enough to move out on our own. Naturally, we grew up believing that it was normal for families to live in clutter. We started to question the condition of our household...
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...and heightened emotions. According to Rob Walker, the author of the article “Stuffed,” hoarding has more to do with a person’s ego than their style in decorating (Walker). It is a growing trend as Americans tend to accumulate items and stash them in their own house or external environment. It is hard for hoarders to get rid of their objects because they become emotionally attached to them. Rob Walker and two other authors, Diane Cole “Bookmarks, Possessed by Our Possession” and Carina Chocano "‘Underneath Every Hoarder Is a Normal Person Waiting to Be Dug Out,’" all share their ideas on hoarding and why it is becoming...
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...With more people getting treatment for hoarding, researchers are able to estimate that about one in every four people with OCD are also hoarders. It is affecting approximately 700,000 to 1.4 million people in the US, which is 5% of the population. This is two times more than OCD and four times more than bipolar and schizophrenia while 50% of hoarders suffer from depression as well. Genetics also factor about 50% of the problems, while 50% of hoarders actually grew up in a hoarding household. To get their anger and frustration out, 75% of hoarders engage in excessive bullying of others and they are three times more likely to become overweight or obese. About 75% of hoarders are excessive buyers, but 50% of the items they acquire are free. The hardest part about hoarding is only 15% know they have it so there is not a way to treat the rest, but from those people who are able to get help, about 73% of those demonstrate positive results from cognitive behavior...
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...items are located. Demographics of Hoarding: A team of researchers found that about 15 percent of older adults with depression had "severe compulsive hoarding behaviors," while just 2 to 5 percent of non-depressed older adults are hoarders. Hoarding is most contributed to occur in people of age 65 and older as they are more likely to accumulate and store ‘precious’ items. Most hoarders live alone due to paranoia of others touching their things. In some instances, families live in a hoarded house and are forced to live in the hoarded conditions for the benefit of their loved one (Nuncan, 2017). Children are often victims of hoarding disorders but are more likely to attempt to stop hoarding...
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...population, but are most commonly found in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Hoarding creates a lot of problems; both for the hoarder and those around them. One is just navigating through a congested obstacle course of stuff in a house becomes difficult. To get something requires searching through stacks of stuff. To put something away requires a nuisance of movement of all the stuff in the cramped area, as well as thinking and decisions on how to do it. Another problem is that there are no areas to do any real work such as counters, tables or workbenches. All this consumes a huge amount of time and energy of the people who live in such conditions. According to demographics, psychiatrists estimate between 2% and 5% of the adult population in the United States and Canada are compulsive hoarders. In North America alone, there are about 4000 cases of animal hoarding involving up to 250,000 reported animals. (Frey, 760) Researchers only began to study hoarding in the 1980s so it is possible that the actual rate of hoarding is higher than reported. This disorder is more common among older adults though it can typically begin in late childhood or adolescence and will become worse as the person grows older. There is no evidence that ethnicity or race is a factor in compulsive hoarding. Men are more likely than women to become hoarders but women typically begin hoarding at an earlier age. Hoarding disorder, included in the Diagnostic and Statical...
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...and treatment it has shown that the two disorders are more different than alike (Tolin). David Tolin, the director of anxiety disorders at the mental health center “The Institute of Living”, and his colleagues wanted to understand what went through the brain of a hoarder. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brain activity of 43 individuals who were considered hoarders. Each test subject was asked to make decisions regarding keeping items or throwing them away. The fMRI measures blood flow to the brain allowing the researchers to see which parts of the brain are more active than others when given...
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...When I initially chose my research question: Crazy cat ladies and the story behind them. What defines a crazy cat lady? I did not realize how many directions this could take me. I originally was looking towards the crazy cat lady being stereo typical middle aged to older single women. These women replace human interaction with feline friends. Engaging them in both their personal and social lives. However, the peer reviewed information was very hard to come by. I have changed my direction more towards Crazy cat lady or cat hoarder what defines one another? In my research, I found much more information animal hoarding and the mental health conditions associated with the hoarding of cats. In my review, I will discuss what makes a crazy cat lady...
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...Men and women are expected to respond to animals differently based on gender stereotypes. Although there are always exceptions, human behavior varies based on factors such as culture, biology, and upbringing. I also believe that the relationship you have with animals may be a factor in how emotional, or non-emotional you may feel towards towards animal related topics such as animal abuse. Many different reachers and psychologists have conducted numerous theories to seek out the answer to the infamous question are “human sex differences a result of nature or nurture?” We still have yet to find a definitive answer. “Some psychologists have found that some sex differences show up so early that they are unlikely to be the result of socialization.” This is also true of our closest animal relative the monkeys that exhibit similarities in toy preferences with human children. The female and male monkeys likes, dislikes, and fears mirrored that of human infantas and children. Oxytocin also plays a role in the human-animal bond, although studies are not definitive, levels of oxytocin are shown to increase after people interacted with animals. In a similar study, males and females had their hormone levels assessed after interacting with animals and it was discovered that hormone levels fluxuated after the interaction. Males in particular were more likely to be aggressive and less empathetic when testosterone levels were high, and the opposite effect when low. Hunting is often associated...
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...OCD, however, men tend to develop it earlier than women. Clients with OCD tend to suffer in many areas of their lives because so much of their time and energy is spent doing their rituals. For more than 7 out of 10 patients, the disorder severely impairs their family relationships, and 6 out of 10 have impaired friendships because of their OCD. Nearly 60 percent of OCD suffers experience academic underachievement and 40 percent of them are unemployed or underemployed (Hollander, Kwon, Stein, Broatch, Rowland & Himelein, 1996). Most forms of OCD fall into five main categories, with most individuals having symptoms in more than one. The five categories include washers, checkers, doubters and sinners, counters and arrangers, and hoarders....
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...what they have, always wanting more. We buy all these things to make us complete however, these things internally makes us I find it sad that someone’s wealth is determined by the value of everything the person owns that can be exchanged for money, goods or service; sometimes it’s even trash to start out with. Eighner states, “Some material things are white elephants that eat up the possessor’s substance”, in fact, there are two types of people who do not understand the concept of necessity. In the eyes of Eighner, they seem to be two extremes of wastefulness and possessiveness. He uses two groups of people as example one a “student” and second a “hoarder”. Eighner explains that a student use “Daddy’s money” to purchase unnecessary goods that inevitably find a home is a trash; a wasteful behavior. On the other hand Hoarders, “Invest in objects with sentimental value”, and cease the discard or recycle whereby exhibiting possessiveness. Through Eighner usage of several rhetorical devices, he gives us a deep meaning of what his take on wealth and materialism is, I would say that his form of wealth come from his years as a dumpster diver, where he took in an abundance of knowledge through experience. He feels that, besides him, only the very wealthy know that there is a lot more of everything for the taking. However, the wealthy think so because they can afford more of anything, not because they understand the “transience of material being”, but because they can buy more. The...
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...any other race that enters this country (Doc D). This demonstrates a point of view from the racial group and how they opinionate about the discrimination that they have to handle because of how society views their presence in the United States. Society in the United States never truly thought that the Chinese people could assimilate into the nation like the other nations have been able to. American society believes that Chinese people are hoarders and heathens because of their cultures and traditions. A testimony of a Californian Attorney General summarized this by saying “The burden of our accusation against them is that they come in conflict with our labor interest, that they can never assimilate with us, that they are a perpetual, unchanging alien element that can never become homogenous” (Doc C). The attorney general conveys the message that the Chinese affect Americans because they “conflict demonstrates interests” which relates to how society believed that the Chinese came to steal jobs from Americans and other people, that they are hoarders because of the scarce amount of jobs. The attorney general makes a very bold statement “that they could never become citizens” and that without any of the features, a “regular” American citizen would have, they could never be true citizens and are a “dangerous” part of the community and society as a whole. d. The ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd In other words, Americans believe that Chinese people who immigrate here come to the United...
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...How to take an idea and make millions 1-800-GOT-JUNK “TRANSCENDENCE” 1-800-Got-Junk has become the largest junk removal company, with more than $66.2 million in sales, 284 franchises across Canada, the United States, Australia and a corporate office into the United Kingdom. Founded in 1989 by Brian Scuddamore, the original name was “The Rubbish Boys.” Brian was 18 years old, a high school drop-out, looking for a summer job. While waiting in line at a drive-through McDonald’s, Brian saw a pick-up truck in front of him, full of junk. This is where the idea hit him, “I can do that.” Brian Scuddamore realized that the junk removal industry was very fragmented. The industry includes independents, who knock on doors to get rid of people’s junk, smaller waste management companies that specialize in roll-offs and handle construction debris. The larger, more structured corporations, such as Waste Management and BFI, based in Canada and the US, posed a challenge to him. Brian saw that junk removal could be a niche market, if approached properly. Until recently, people had no way of getting rid of certain items, such as bulky household rubbish that the other larger disposal companies would not deal with. These items included: construction material, garden refuse, old furniture and appliances The deficit that the companies had, which included poor service and inconsistent pricing, was going to be the way Brian carved out his “niche”. Knowing that he had to stand out, Brian focused on...
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...standard of nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care, which often results in starvation, illness, and death for the animals. The most cases hoarders believe they are helping the animals and they deny the inability to provide even the lowest care. Although just because someone has multiple animals it doesn't mean they are hoarders, there are different signs that indicate if someone is a hoarder. For starters, one sign is that they remember how many animals are in their care. Their home is run down, dirty windows, broken furniture etc. The animals are very skinny, laid-back, and can't handle strangers very well. Fleas and vermin are visible to the human eye. The owners of the animals are isolated from the world and most likely neglect themselves. They are persistent that all the animals are happy and healthy even when it is clearly visible that the animals are in distress or are showing signs of illness. Based on the information given by the ASPCA website, it has been considered that there are roughly 900 to 2,000 new cases of animal hoarding every year in the United States. The animals normally collected can range from cats, dogs, reptiles, rodents, birds, exotics, and even farm animals. In almost all cases, criminal prosecution can be a difficult process and possibly not the most intelligent way to go because most of the hoarders aren't criminally inclined but mostly emotionally troubled. Luckily animal hoarding is included in any kind of animal abuse there is, the law states...
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