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NEWS > HEALTH > HOARDING AT ALL TIME HIGH AFTER SUCCESS OF TELEVISION PORTRAYALS
HOARDING AT ALL TIME HIGH AFTER SUCCESS OF TELEVISION PORTRAYALS
October 1 2010
New York, NY – From the outside no one would expect that Marie Coulter’s apartment is different from anyone else’s in this Brooklyn building. The door looks just like every other door on the floor, a light beige with the number 39 and an 
eyehole. However, this apartment is much different, dramatically different in fact then all of her neighbours. It is the apartment of a hoarder, something that becomes immediately clear when opening the door, or at least trying to open the door, into the miasma of debris collected in the small two bedroom rental.
Decayed food, empty water bottles, a hula girl lamp, and hundreds of other pieces of miscellanea live in this apartment alongside Marie and her son. It’s impossible to see the floor and the only way to move is to almost surf over the waves of stuff consuming every spare area. The kitchen is hardly accessible – Marie and her son eat in her bedroom – and there is nothing resembling a living room. Even the bathroom is consumed, the pair shower have been showering at a neighbour’s for two years. There is hardly room to breathe in the apartment never mind live, and this is a scenario being played out at millions of homes across America, something experts believe is only getting worse with the success of the many television shows depicting the situation.
“I know it’s out of control. I know it’s been out of control for a long time but I just don’t know where to start. I’ve tried before but it always ends up the same way again. It seems like for every one thing I throw out I buy two more,” said Coulter, 36. “It just seems like there is no way out anymore. I want to change, mostly for my son. I know it’s hard for him and he can’t bring any friends over and that’s not the lie I want for him. I really want him to have a normal life but for that to happen I need to have a normal life.”
Coulter stated that her obsession has become worse since the various hoarding shows began to air, shows she obviously watches obsessively.
“The hard reality is that this is very large issue, an issue that people simply haven’t paid much attention to until recently. There are at least two million hoarders across the United States and so it’s likely everyone knows someone being crippled by this disease,” said hoarding expert Dr. Keith Cort. “What we have found in recent years is a massive uptick in the number of cases we are treating. While some of that can certainly be attributed to increased awareness, a large percentage of these cases have been going on for less than two years, about as long as these shows have been airing. Some people even attribute their own hoarding to their love of these shows. This is obvious copycat behaviour but there is more underlying the problem.”
The hoarding shows have been routinely aired on networks such as TLC and A&E.
“For many people already bordering this obsessive behaviour something like this show 
is just enough to tip them over. Much like young girls emulate Miley Cyrus, obsessive people see something on TV they like and choose to emulate that behaviour which is causing these fresh cases,” continued Cort. “As a responsible doctor I would call on the networks to cease airing these shows, but that would only stop a handful of cases and not help the millions of others. Besides, this has been a huge growth area of late and I’ve been trying to get on one of those shows for a while now. Hopefully, fingers crossed.”
Both TLC and A&E have been rabidly filming episodes and keeping them locked away in their vaults.
Lauren Hebert, Health Correspondent
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