theworryblog.com

I’ve been watching with great interest a trend in the media — hoarding.  If you’ve seen the A&E show about hoarding you know what it’s about.  I’ve also seen some spots on other tv shows on this topic.  Generally speaking these shows find people who have saved everything - even rotting things, to an extreme.  Total disorganization except that many of them seem to be in denial.

The actual definition of hoarding in dictionaries that I have found is not so denigrating.  It’s some vague reference to stockpiling or accumulating things for preservation or future use.

But now all this attention about hoarding is on these people who are living horrible lives.  The TV shows come to the rescue, hosts argue with the hoarder about getting started to clean up their messes.  We’re served up a hefty dish of disgusting animal droppings, mold, and general disorder.   Talk shows indicate it’s a form of OCD or addiction (depending upon which one you watch).  Mostly, we are expected to be entertained.

I guess, along with shows like Biggest Loser, this type of reality show is supposed to make us feel better about ourselves by virtue of them showing the lowest of the low (we’re not so bad as they are), but still leaves us worrying and in doubt.  Is it possible we have these tendencies?

Anyone who has ever invited company over and then has to think about getting the place cleaned up before they arrive knows the feeling of “My place is not clean/picked up enough.   I myself use the paper bag technique in the kitchen.  Haul out some supermarket bags, stuff all the items cluttering my desk, counters, etc. into them and hide them till the company leaves.

But in my mind I have just TONS of stuff all over the house.  The older I get the more I have.  It’s exactly like too many pounds.  Years of “I just have to have that” have lead to a house full of STUFF.   I’d like to think it’s organized.  I don’t have filth, my paths through the house are clear.  I won’t faint if my doorbell rings.   But now thanks to the hoarding shows I have something new to worry about.   Do I have this propensity?  I wonder what it is they want me to do or buy to fix it.

Even as I look at the online dictionary I’m seeing “sponsored results” on how to get rid of my junk inbetween the definitions.    So that’s it - they want me to worry that I too am a hoarder and now I need to pay someone to haul my stuff off.   More anxiety.

Which tea is it that is supposed to calm me down?