A Buried Lost Soul

Melanie Childs

English II-4^th block

Mckoy

31^st August 2013

A Buried Lost Soul

 Have you ever wonder what it would be like to live in a house infested with rats, roaches and other creepy crawlers? Have you ever wonder how it would feel to have a parent/ guardian to think that these living conditions are normal? In the United States alone there are hundreds of children living with compulsive hoarders as parents. TLC brought compulsive hoarding to the Public eye on the show “Hoarding Buried Alive.” The show’s main goal was to show the public how the mental stability of these everyday people affected their living conditions often putting their health in jeopardy. From the show hoarders became looked upon as filthy dirty slobs that will not clean their house, but in their world which is not revealed to the public they are lost in our society and need materialistic things to make them feel wanted. Despite the fact that many have children they still feel the urge to keep what will live forever resulting in negative health effects such as infestation.  My mother was first exposed to the negative effects of compulsive hoarding while taking care of a hospice client fighting lung cancer. For him every day was a battle, climbing over mounds of trash, struggling to find a clean non- infested cup to drink water from and being around diseased rodents 24 hours a day. Before his departure his last wish was to have his great- grand children removed from the vile environment and to be sent to live with their uncle. After his departure my mother became ill from vicious spider bites and many unknown markings on her body. The children that were living in the compulsive hoarding environment were exposed to infinite amounts of diseases. I strongly that hoarders with children should have their parental rights temporarily revoked until housing conditions improve well enough so that the children’s health risk will not be in jeopardy.

The Department of Psychiatry estimated that 1.2 million people in the United States suffer from compulsive hoarding. If more than just half of those people have children, those children are exposed to infestation, and are limited to a very small living space. These children must wonder why they have to live in these poor conditions and what even caused their parental figure to become a compulsive hoarder in the beginning. To many people, they believe that compulsive hoarding is caused by depression or neglect. According to the Department of Psychiatry states that “Discarding valuable items that might be needed or useful someday, losing important information, making a mistake, being wasteful, losing something that reminds a person of a loved one, not being able to do things as completely or as well as one would like”(UCSD 1).  These are just few of the numerous causes of compulsive hoarding. These six causes of compulsive hoarding can be discarded over time ranging from months to 1-10 years.  These 6 causes show no signs of a mental stability problem, therefore not putting children at risk if they return to their parental figure. Children being temporarily removed from their parental figure will easily return after the signs of compulsive hoarding have subsided. These six causes only last for a short period of time; however some may say that if the cause comes back the children will yet again be exposed to the compulsive hoarding, but relapses of a compulsive hoarder with found with these six causes are rarely seen.

In those 1.2 million people some may suffer from a post traumatic event in their life or may even have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). PTSD has a lot of different reactions on different people, but in this case PTSD is leading to compulsive hoarding. “ Patients ranging in various age groups with PTSD responding well to treatment in regards to compulsive hoarding.”(Shavitt 7). out of the 1.2 million people suffering from compulsive hoarding, children living with a parental figure who is also suffering from PTSD and not receiving treatment should be temporarily removed from custody until the guardian is regularly receiving treatment and is responding positively. Some may say that as an adult the patient can stop treatment in belief that they can continue to respond positively without the enhancer and result into a relapse of compulsive hoarding. I believe as adult stopping the enhancer the children should be taken into temporary custody until medication continues.

Children living in these unsuitable environments are suffering from health issues that can be fatal. These children will mature in to believing that it is okay and completely normal to become a compulsive hoarder, resulting into putting their children in the same infested environment. Some people may agree with me and say that until the housing conditions have improved and become suitable for a human being to live then the children should not return to the custody of their parental figure. Some people may argue that once a compulsive hoarder you will forever be a compulsive hoarder and say that the children should be permanently removed from the custody of their guardian. I would like to further my research because I believe that every child should be able to live a safe home. I believe that no child should endure painful spider bites and become ill from rodents. Can you imagine living in the same household as rats, roaches, and mold? Could you imagine being in a cramp room filled with clutter and gassy smells? Could you imagine having a parent believe that this type of living is normal?