Negatives Of Hoarding

1．In Lars Eighner’s essay “On dumpster diving”, the author shows his unique personal experiences on the street and the interesting stories with dumpsters. After reading the article, I can describe the author’s attitude toward material possessions as: The prosperity of material and money is not the standard of his moral value. He cares more about the spiritual fulfillment, which is do some meaningful things he felt. And the difference of his attitude from other members of society is he really enjoyed his life, while other people, put into his situation, would rather die or fight for anything to get a better life. He used his knowledge and confidence to successfully survive in the hard environment and enjoy it a lot.

Hoarding is not currently considered an illness on its own right. Compulsive hoarding has been treated as symptom or subtype of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Cluttergone).

Like John Freyer, I am the type who holds onto objects, whether it is useful or not, as I tend to think that I may have some use for them in the future, and would regret getting rid of it. I am very conservative of my money, so I end up keeping what others would call trash most of the time. However, I did not really think much about the items that I stashed in my drawers and shelves, as they were just insignificant objects that came to play a part in my life. But in Freyer’s “All My Life For Sale,” he had written that through voluntary dispossession, he had begun to see how his possessions had portrayed him and what it symbolized for him, allowing him to see what the problem he had was. Reading this article made me remember the time when I realized that possessions can a different meaning to them if you look at them in a different way.

I constantly feel the impending doom that is my impermanence. I know death is a part of life – I am very painfully aware of this fact. I know that I will someday die, but what is it that I will leave behind? Will I leave anything behind? I’m a filmmaker, a photographer, a musician – I have projects that I am very proud of. But the question still rings in my ears: Have I done anything valuable? And what does the world consider valuable? Is their value the same as mine? I find that I do not know how to shake these questions from my attentions.

- Hoarding: when obsessed with making everything their own is kept and they become emotionally attached to items, the thought of throwing away items causes distress.

B. When hoarding is extreme, family members and/or friends should refer an individual to a clinician. From there a clinician should consider a diagnosis of OCD.

Hoarding is thought to be a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder, but some hoarders do not have other symptoms of OCD (“Hoarding: Definition”). “Some estimate that that as many as 1 in 4 people with OCD also have compulsive hoarding. Recent research suggests that nearly 1 in 5 compulsive hoarder have non-hoarding OCD symptoms” (“The OCD Foundation: Hoarding Fact Sheet”). The International OCD Foundation fact sheet states:

Up to 5% of the world’s population displays some sign of clinic hoarding. Hoarding involves the compulsive acquisition and accumulation of objects, animals, and trash and other debris. The hoarder, who often has another mental illness such as depression, is unable or unwilling to discard items, frequently resulting in health and safety hazards to those who reside in or visit the dwelling (Hurd, 2015). Hoarding can affect many aspects of one’s life causing severe problems and can begin as early as adolescent years continuing through elderly life.

vi. Hoarders have hundreds of animals living in their home living in filth including garbage and layers of feces.

In one of her songs, Joni Mitchell sang "You dont know what you've got till it's gone". This statement was most likely suggesting that people take their belongings and the people in their life for granted. I think this statement is correct for many reasons.

one of the biggest issues we are facing this time is about disposing old things. Recently, more and more people frequently throw the old things away when they have other new choices which is totally different from the past. So it is relevant to consider the reasons of this situation to have a better understanding on their effect.

“Stuff, stuff, I am surrounded by stuff.”(line 1) We look around and all we see are belongings that we might not even use or need. Although we don’t acknowledge it, keeping ties and papers from ten years ago is a characteristic of hoarding. There is just a little hoarder inside all of us. It is part of human nature. The emotional value that we give to objects play the biggest role when deciding to keep or get rid of something. We collect and save some items because it helps us remember the past or a person that is not longer among the living. However, some people become obsessed with the idea of collecting. This obsession eventually turns into a disorder. Memories, sentimental value, laziness, and procrastination are the main reasons why

At a very early age I discovered my interest in fervour of with being a sworn my enthusiasm found my vocation devoted as a fervent accumulator-of-things. I have never been one to throw anything away. And while I don’t accept the the term ‘hoarder’, the spectrum of objects I have amassed over the years ranges from collected scrap papers, letters, collectible toys and tickets, to sweet wrappers, ID photos, milk teeth, clothes and journals. When I look upon the objects around me, my possessions, there seems to be an unspoken hierarchy amongst them. What makes some of these objects more compelling than others?

Furthermore, a form of animal neglect is hoarding. Hoarding is described by the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium as the accumulation of a large amount of animals, resulting in a lack of nutrition, sanitation, veterinary care, and failure to recognize these deteriorating conditions of being harmful to both the animal and caretaker ("Hoarding"). There are several laws prohibiting hoarding in every state and the individuals who participate can be prosecuted either by fines, jail time or banned from animal ownership. For example, section 31-19-1 of New Mexico 's Statutes declares that any defendant convicted of animal neglect can be imprisoned up to one year and fined up to 1,000 dollars ("2006"). This law only applies to domesticated animals and not livestock, thus leaving pigs the devastation of standing on gestation crate floors covered in ammonia ridden feces. Full grown pigs are crammed into the 27 by 80-inch crates, in facilities that often have "more than 20 sows [mother pigs] per row and 100 more

It cannot be more honestly put, than in bestselling author, Joshua Becker’s words: “The amount of stuff we own these days is staggering.” According to Becker’s research, the size of an average American home has more than doubled from 1,000 square feet to approximately 2,500 square feet. Self Storage companies generate more than $24 billion of revenue per year, and Americans today consume twice more than Americans 50 years ago. (…) All of this while the average household carries a burden of between $7,400 to $15,863 in