Compulsive Hoarding Analysis

Compulsive Hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary. This is the story of Augustine a 68 year old woman from Gretna, Louisiana.

In the past two decades, Augustine has paid more than $30,000 for city mandated cleanups. Augustine’s home is in violation of city code and her gamily fears the house will be condemned and she will have no place to go. According to hoarders expert, Augustine’s house is at a level 5, which is the worst level the house could be rated. She has no gas and for that reason she has no hot water. Her stove is not working and she is not able to wash or dry clothes. Floor boards are going, ceilings are caving in, and plumbing is not working in the home. For this reason the bathrooms are off limits with no
possible use. Augustine have behaviors such as compulsive storing of items that have little to no value which causes her home to be cluttered and hazardous to herself and others. Her attitude is very defensive when it comes to her private property and others telling her what she should and should not keep. She has thousands of pounds of debris which makes mobility in the home almost impossible. Because of her life styles she has lost her relationships with her children. When her son Jason was in grade school he was tormented as a child by other children because of his situation. He said that because the house stunk so badly, he would smell bad as well. He has no memory of his childhood home ever being clean. When he was in the eight grade someone suspected negligence within the home and called the police to his home while he was on his way home from school. The police did not understand how a mother could have her child live in such horrible conditions as well as have animals living with her. The state took control of her situation in regards to the animals and her son and removed them from the home. At that point Augustine begin to feel that nobody in the world loved or cared about her and she became very depressed with herself and with others. As a child Augustine states that her childhood was horrible because her mother did not like her for the simple fact of her being born out of wedlock.
She grew up feeling that no one loved her and that she would never have a great relationship with her mother. I said that for the explanation of her current relationship with her own daughter. They are always at each others throat and do not get along very well. Susan, her daughter, states that she would never be able to live with her mother because of their different personalities. When ever Susan tries to help her mother with her horrible living condition, her mother feels that Susan is just trying to hurt her. As Susan get rid of items that have no need, Augustine feels that her daughter is trying to hurt her because she hates her. Susan feels that her mother is always blaming others, especially her for the way she is or just for simple things like a chest drawer being in the living room that she once borrowed from her mother. Susan also states that her mother was not always like this. Her mother was once very big on being clean and taking care of her personal hygiene in a manner able
way. Susan explains how she has been there for her mother even when the state came in and took her son away. Susan states that she was the one that took her brother into her single life and continued to raise him on her own. At that time the state gave Augustine a chance to fix herself and her situation so that she may get her son back and she never pushed forward the effort. Her son Jason doesn’t hate his mother, but he also doesn’t have an emotional attachment to her either. As he got older he became his own man and moved to Seattle, Washington where he now resides with a life that is fitting for him. Before this show, Jason has not seen his mother in four years. He is flying to New Orleans in the hopes of helping his sister help his mother one last time before completely giving up on her for good. Augustine’s hoarding have caused an uproar between her and her neighbors. They have reported on her many times how she is living and that she does nothing about it. Augustine have become very depressed over the years for many different reasons that does not give an excuse to why she live the way she does but there is a pattern of people whom she love not loving her back or either walking out on her. When she was pregnant with her son Jason, his father walked out of her life when she mentioned that she was pregnant with their baby. But her daughter feels that after twenty eight years she should be over that by now and moving on with her life to make things better for herself and reviving missed relationships and opportunities that she missed with her children. Once the crew begin to help Augustine with the hoarding situation, she begin to become very aware of what she still wanted. Despite the fact that just about everything in her home was hazardous, Augustine still wanted it. Although she was defensive she was not an angry person. She was more emotional and saddened by what was happening to her personal items. While cleaning the house, the crew found two dead cats in her home that they suspected to have been in the home for at least ten years. The crew even managed to find her dentures that she lost years ago in which she was determined to keep and use after being under so much waste. Throughout the cleaning process, Augustine and her daughter Susan stayed at each others throat about the situation at hand. The counselors kept pointing out to Augustine how she was blaming others for her situation. Even when asked why was her son was taken away from her, she said because the air condition was not working. She never actually felt as though she had a problem, but in the end she begin to thank the crew for their hard work and dedication. When I begin to look at the first series of hoarders I professed that I would never allow myself to be like that. Even now in my own home I would get rid of stuff that seems to have little to o value in my life. When I look at my children homework and drawings, I feel as though I just want to keep everything. All of us have special relationship with things and that relationship is in some ways magical. We get carried away with those attachments and while that could get more of us into trouble with our possessions most of us are able to decide when an object begins to interfere with our life. We do something about it at that point. That's the thing that's so troublesome for people who hoard. When the object begins to interfere, they simply put up with it rather than deal with the item. But nevertheless, Augustine is willing to get help by seeing a doctor for in house treatment and her daughter is going to stick around long enough to help with the steady progression for her mothers condition.