So Much Hoarders

As I've been cleaning, I've had Hoarders on in the background. Episode after episode. And I've come to realize a few things. One -- and I probably already knew this -- is that hoarding is the symptom, not necessarily the disease. As I've watched these people bring their emotions to the surface, the emotions that led to the hoarding, I've wondered why some folks are affected in certain ways by situations and some folks in other ways by the same situations. I do realize that no one's situation is exactly the same as someone else's, but there are general similarities.

Many of the hoarders on the program have experienced trauma that is considered to be the root of their hoarding. I've wondered the same thing when it comes to other kinds of addiction. Why do some people develop these habits, while others who have had similar experiences don't? When I was a teenager, I engage in many indulgences that other kids of the 70s did. Quite a few of my friends who were involved in such things went on to have lives severely affected by addictions. But more -- who were doing pretty much the same things at the time -- didn't. The latter group went on to have healthy relationships and raise fine children. I suppose I'm somewhere in between; I haven't had the greatest romantic relationships, but on the other hand, I did raise fine children and I have some good other-than-romantic relationships. And I stopped my indulgences very early on.

These things are tied together, in my view at least, by the idea of perception, especially when it comes to repression and/or victimhood. I don't understand those issues very well, I guess, but I am seeing the parallels. This is something I think I'll put some effort into learning more about.