American Hoarding

We have TV shows about it, and the crazy old cat woman is the epitome of the hoarder.  So are those depression-era survivors that have stacks of butter containers and newspapers and used aluminum foil neatly pressed, folded and stacked.

In the shows, someone with a mic and camera goes in to do an intervention---shades of addiction therapy---and for the horror and amusement of folks all over the country, makes snarky comments.

It probably is an addiction, and like all addiction, is a way of calming a fear--we call them anxiety, since they are not based on anything that anyone else can identify as real.  Addiction is just a nonfunctional coping mechanism.  We use them to feel better, but the end result is we don't actually do better, and they can kill us.
Being humiliated on TV is probably not the answer.

Because of the hype hoarders have gotten, every magazine and many TV shows are directed at thinning the accumulation.  Pronouncements of "don't keep anything you haven't used in 6 months"  and "if you have more than one of those throw it out" are the kinds of advice that are shared.  I'm not sure why no one ever says "stop buying all that crap".   Shoppers that shop for bargains weekly, buying things they already have, buying things they might someday need, buying to feel the void.  It is just as bad as hoarding, but apparently throwing your excess out is socially acceptable, or maybe it just doesn't sell ads the way the sellers would like.
I am not a hoarder. I hate to shop.  But if I find something that looks like a future art project, I'll probably get it and it will probably not be used in 6 months.  I currently have several boxes of depression-era fabric scraps for quilting, but I don't quilt 24/7.  I quilt when I feel like it.  I also have a roll of art canvas that I have been working on for several years.  I haven't made a new canvas in 2 years because I keep reworking the same stinking one.  Sometimes its just like that.  I have a stamp collection left from childhood, are all stamp collectors hoarders?  I realize that the need to obtain, examine, categorize and store a group of things can be seen as pretty odd.
But is it wrong?
Do they need an intervention?
If a person gains something from their collecting or making that calms them, grounds them, focuses them--is that an illness or is that a tool?
I have no answers, but do know that reality TV was made for the lowest type of entertainment.  If all that makes a person feel good about themselves is to be able to watch someone else be publicly humiliated for not fitting into the mold of the average, they might be more in need of help than the person spending their time stacking magazines around the wall or folding aluminum foil.
If you need to feel better, volunteer.
There are a milllion places to volunteer.  Hospices need volunteers for those of you that feel the need to help the dying and their families; and museums need volunteers for those of you that like to share in the amazing arts and science experiences that both children and adults can learn from and love. There are clean-ups of the environment to help the earth, animal shelters for animal lovers, construction and repair projects that fulfill that need to work with your hands.
There is story reading at libraries, schools need volunteers to present special collections and stories about the past.
There are a million things that are better than watching hoarders on TV.
And if you know a hoarder personally, see if they want to volunteer with you.  That might be a more useful coping mechanism for them. 
Maybe we can stop some of crap from accumulating unnecessarily in the landfills and on the TV line-up.