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Hoarders

This guy is lucky to be alive.

Firefighters rescued a man in his 70s in South Dublin after he had become trapped in his home for about 14 hours due to hoarding of rubbish and belongings.

Dublin Fire Brigade found the man stuck under a pile of collected rubbish and belongings hoarded inside a house in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area. He was taken to St James’s Hospital for observation for back injuries suffered as a result of being trapped, said a spokesman for the brigade.

The fire brigade posted a photograph of firefighters attending to the man’s cluttered home and warned people to be aware of the dangers posed to people who hoard at home.

“Hoarding is a disorder that needs treatment and managing. Apart from an obvious fire and escape risk, hoarding is a health risk,” said the fire brigade.

It advised anyone who knows of someone who hoards to speak to the GP for advice.

“Unfortunately, this is not an unusual scenario,” said Sean Moynihan, chief executive of Alone, the charity for older persons.


“We come across cases like this weekly right across the country. It is a condition and it needs to be managed.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/...ing-of-belongings-is-rescued-by-firefighters/
 
ramonmercado said:
This guy is lucky to be alive.

Firefighters rescued a man in his 70s in South Dublin after he had become trapped in his home for about 14 hours due to hoarding of rubbish and belongings.

Dublin Fire Brigade found the man stuck under a pile of collected rubbish and belongings hoarded inside a house in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area. He was taken to St James’s Hospital for observation for back injuries suffered as a result of being trapped, said a spokesman for the brigade.

The fire brigade posted a photograph of firefighters attending to the man’s cluttered home and warned people to be aware of the dangers posed to people who hoard at home.

“Hoarding is a disorder that needs treatment and managing. Apart from an obvious fire and escape risk, hoarding is a health risk,” said the fire brigade.

It advised anyone who knows of someone who hoards to speak to the GP for advice.

“Unfortunately, this is not an unusual scenario,” said Sean Moynihan, chief executive of Alone, the charity for older persons.


“We come across cases like this weekly right across the country. It is a condition and it needs to be managed.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/...ing-of-belongings-is-rescued-by-firefighters/
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Odd, isn't it, when most people are trying to get rid of excess clothing and clutter?
Do you think 'hoarders' are trying to perhaps fill an empty life?
 
hunck said:
I lived fairly close to Mr Trebus & passed his house quite frequently. The front garden & side passage was a sight to behold. You wouldn't want to live next door.

A fine Victorian 3 or 4 story house, probably worth more than a couple of million now.

Clearly an unhealthy obsession but you have to doff your cap at his tenaciousness & effort with the size of some of the bits he'd hauled back even in his 80s.

Nice to see him eventually get looked after, & the council guy's visit at the end was poignant - "He was a nice old so & so".
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The poor man!
 
It's all very well the firefighter saying it's a condition and it needs to be managed, but as anyone who's ever known a hoarder will tell you, they refuse to accept any help or that they HAVE a condition. It all seems perfectly reasonable to them. If they can accept that they've got too much stuff then they are on the road to being helped, but usually - they can't.
 
I don't understand why these extreme hoarders keep rubbish and don't do recycling.
I'm a little bit of a hoarder myself, but I do get rid of stuff I identify as rubbish.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I don't understand why these extreme hoarders keep rubbish and don't do recycling.
I'm a little bit of a hoarder myself, but I do get rid of stuff I identify as rubbish.
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We have a show here, 'Hoarders', and it pains me to watch it, I've only seen it 2 or 3 times, because they actually have layers all over the floor, and are stepping on them, of pizza boxes, milk bottles, all kinds of food - and then their bed has even more trash on it.
I can't imagine the smell.
 
catseye said:
It's all very well the firefighter saying it's a condition and it needs to be managed, but as anyone who's ever known a hoarder will tell you, they refuse to accept any help or that they HAVE a condition. It all seems perfectly reasonable to them. If they can accept that they've got too much stuff then they are on the road to being helped, but usually - they can't.
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there is also input from an organisation which aids elderly people in the full article at the link.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Odd, isn't it, when most people are trying to get rid of excess clothing and clutter?
Do you think 'hoarders' are trying to perhaps fill an empty life?
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My husband has hoarding tendencies - and the kids and I have to deal with it constantly. Amateur psychologist here, but I put it down to something that happened to him when he was 8 or 9. His parents upped sticks and moved across the country abruptly, what must have felt like overnight, to him. (Dad lost his job, got another but a very long way from home in a place where they knew nobody and left behind his much loved grandma and family etc).

As his parents' car pulled away from the house (presumably moving van separate), his parents gleefully informed him they'd just left all his toys behind...

He will often buy things he doesn't need and can't bring himself to, say, throw away past sell by food - kids and I have to do it. He gets upset if he even sees us do it. On one level, he knows perfectly well it's dysfunctional. On another, can't help himself.

He is also really disorganised (dyspraxia) and so will constantly lose possessions, panic, then re-buy them. He must have 6 of every tool, for example.

Will do other stuff like constantly want to buy books and yet in all the years I've known him, have never seen him sit down and read a book. He loves charity shops as well. I will sneak ahead of him and hide the things I know he will feel compelled to buy lol. Did it just this week.

He invests way too much emotion in things. And if you challenge it, he gets upset.

If I want to throw summat out, I do it but wait til he's not around and we put stuff in the bin that we know he won't want to let go of, after he's gone to work, on bin day so it's gone and there's nothing he can do about it. He would go in a bin to "rescue" something and if I throw away something actually useful (which can happen) and he "rescues" it, he feels vindicated for years after.

What those articles rarely point out is how tough it is on family and friends.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
My husband has hoarding tendencies - and the kids and I have to deal with it constantly. Amateur psychologist here, but I put it down to something that happened to him when he was 8 or 9. His parents upped sticks and moved across the country abruptly, what must have felt like overnight, to him. (Dad lost his job, got another but a very long way from home in a place where they knew nobody and left behind his much loved grandma and family etc).

As his parents' car pulled away from the house (presumably moving van separate), his parents gleefully informed him they'd just left all his toys behind...

He will often buy things he doesn't need and can't bring himself to, say, throw away past sell by food - kids and I have to do it. He gets upset if he even sees us do it. On one level, he knows perfectly well it's dysfunctional. On another, can't help himself.

He is also really disorganised (dyspraxia) and so will constantly lose possessions, panic, then re-buy them. He must have 6 of every tool, for example.

Will do other stuff like constantly want to buy books and yet in all the years I've known him, have never seen him sit down and read a book. He loves charity shops as well. I will sneak ahead of him and hide the things I know he will feel compelled to buy lol. Did it just this week.

He invests way too much emotion in things. And if you challenge it, he gets upset.

If I want to throw summat out, I do it but wait til he's not around and we put stuff in the bin that we know he won't want to let go of, after he's gone to work, on bin day so it's gone and there's nothing he can do about it. He would go in a bin to "rescue" something and if I throw away something actually useful (which can happen) and he "rescues" it, he feels vindicated for years after.

What those articles rarely point out is how tough it is on family and friends.
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Oh dear, so it goes back to childhood?
I know my husband has his 'junk drawers' - full of tools, screws, nuts and bolts (things that are useful), with piles of junk thrown in, bits of paper with something scribbled on it, old pens that don't work, broken things like key chains, old rubber bands and lottery tickets, just any old thing - I can't bear to look in those drawers because I have the compulsion to toss it all out. So I suppose he has a bit of that himself.
I have caught him many times searching the garbage can to see exactly what I've thrown out, sometimes getting angry - LOL!
But his parents died young and he lost everything, so perhaps that's part of it.
And I am a total neat freak, always scrubbing.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Oh dear, so it goes back to childhood?
I know my husband has his 'junk drawers' - full of tools, screws, nuts and bolts (things that are useful), with piles of junk thrown in, bits of paper with something scribbled on it, old pens that don't work, broken things like key chains, old rubber bands and lottery tickets, just any old thing - I can't bear to look in those drawers because I have the compulsion to toss it all out. So I suppose he has a bit of that himself.
I have caught him many times searching the garbage can to see exactly what I've thrown out, sometimes getting angry - LOL!
But his parents died young and he lost everything, so perhaps that's part of it.
And I am a total neat freak, always scrubbing.
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I’ve watched all episodes of Hoarders, most of them have some sort of past trauma. For many the stuff replaces something/someone they’ve lost. Some build literal walls around themselves with stuff. I can understand, in way. The ones who live with trash, human/animal waste and rotting food are a little more difficult to understand.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
My husband has hoarding tendencies - and the kids and I have to deal with it constantly. Amateur psychologist here, but I put it down to something that happened to him when he was 8 or 9. His parents upped sticks and moved across the country abruptly, what must have felt like overnight, to him. (Dad lost his job, got another but a very long way from home in a place where they knew nobody and left behind his much loved grandma and family etc).

As his parents' car pulled away from the house (presumably moving van separate), his parents gleefully informed him they'd just left all his toys behind...
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I was seven years old when my parents bought a house and we moved, and I had to leave my two turtles behind with a neighbor, my father was so mean he wouldn't let me take them.
Parents can be so cruel, I think they can leave us with everlasting trauma. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I've never gotten over those two little turtles.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
I was seven years old when my parents bought a house and we moved, and I had to leave my two turtles behind with a neighbor, my father was so mean he wouldn't let me take them.
Parents can be so cruel, I think they can leave us with everlasting trauma. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I've never gotten over those two little turtles.
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Oh Ronnie, that's such an awful thing to have done to you! I've never forgotten a piece I read somewhere where a mother was complaining about her child's attachment to her pet, and the person commenting said 'remember how you felt about your tiny baby when she was small? How you wanted to love and protect her and hold her forever? That is how your child feels about her pet...'
That has stayed with me.

And @Ghost In The Machine Your poor husband.
 
catseye said:
Oh Ronnie, that's such an awful thing to have done to you! I've never forgotten a piece I read somewhere where a mother was complaining about her child's attachment to her pet, and the person commenting said 'remember how you felt about your tiny baby when she was small? How you wanted to love and protect her and hold her forever? That is how your child feels about her pet...'
That has stayed with me.

And @Ghost In The Machine Your poor husband.
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Thanks Catseye. He has improved in the past several years and we sort of don't let him get overwhelmed by his crap - but it does take constant subtle management from everyone around him and it can be exhausting.

Ronnie, that is so sad.
 
I went to the Book Exchange (Some nefarious scheme designed to induce yours truly to enter a Telephone Box...) today and came out with half a dozen books on Aikido.
 
Kondoru said:
I went to the Book Exchange (Some nefarious scheme designed to induce yours truly to enter a Telephone Box...) today and came out with half a dozen books on Aikido.
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That's fun! I always enjoyed paper-folding. Sorry, I'm confusing it with those tiny trees, aren't I?
 
Another warning from a Fire Brigade.

A fire service is warning hoarders that their piled-up possessions are putting their lives at risk.

Cleveland Fire Brigade says its officers visit more 100 homes a year to warn householders that rooms crammed with flammable materials make rescue in a fire more difficult. The service said a crammed room could be well alight within 90 seconds. It is appealing to the friends and families of hoarders to get in touch to arrange home safety visits.

Fire service spokesman Sean Smith said: "Our firefighters are already faced with heat and smoke and zero visibility, but then they have to navigate in that heat and smoke to potentially find someone trapped in a fire.

"Obviously the more clutter and hoarding within that property, the more difficult it is for them to establish what they are looking for. It can slow down the process of trying to rescue someone in a fire."

According to the NHS, hoarding disorder is a mental health condition characterised by the acquisition of an excessive number of items that are stored in a chaotic manner.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-65656686
 
ramonmercado said:
Another warning from a Fire Brigade.

A fire service is warning hoarders that their piled-up possessions are putting their lives at risk.

Cleveland Fire Brigade says its officers visit more 100 homes a year to warn householders that rooms crammed with flammable materials make rescue in a fire more difficult. The service said a crammed room could be well alight within 90 seconds. It is appealing to the friends and families of hoarders to get in touch to arrange home safety visits.

Fire service spokesman Sean Smith said: "Our firefighters are already faced with heat and smoke and zero visibility, but then they have to navigate in that heat and smoke to potentially find someone trapped in a fire.

"Obviously the more clutter and hoarding within that property, the more difficult it is for them to establish what they are looking for. It can slow down the process of trying to rescue someone in a fire."

According to the NHS, hoarding disorder is a mental health condition characterised by the acquisition of an excessive number of items that are stored in a chaotic manner.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-65656686
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Good luck to them, I bet this is a great way to make enemies.
 
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