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Insight: July 12

Tonight Insight reflects on a problem estimated to affect more than 600,000 Australians: Hoarding.

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Tonight Insight reflects on a problem estimated to affect more than 600,000 Australians: Hoarding.

Host Jenny Brockie hears how it influences people’s safety and their relationships and can often lead to isolation, depression and homelessness.

What possesses someone to save every scrap of paper or bread tag that’s ever come into their home?

What compulsions drive Moira to cram her own home so full of collectibles and chickens that there is hardly any space for her?

Or Stewart, whose house is so full of stuff the authorities have threatened to take his children away? Or Judy, whose hoarding cost her marriage?

In this episode of Insight, we also examine the pull that possessions exert on all of us.

Whether we’re keepers, chuckers, collectors, minimalists or compulsive shoppers, none of us is free of the impulses that drive hoarders to extremes. We investigate the causes and outline the often ineffective treatments for hoarding.

For the estimated 600,000 Australian sufferers, their relatives and friends, and the rest of us with complicated relationships to our things, this episode explores the question of what happens when our stuff starts to own us.

Guests include:

Moira Macmillan
“I am ashamed. I am really ashamed of it and it is also a health risk to other people.”

Stewart Purdie
“It’s like when you have a new baby and it’s the most precious thing in the world.

My stuff is like that to me. It’s mine, I can repair it and look after it.”

Professor Randy Frost
“Anything that is owned by someone who suffers from hoarding disorder feel like it’s part of them. To get rid of it feels like you’re cutting off your arm.”

Mercy Splitt, Hoarding and Squalor Manager
“It’s estimated there’s approximately 600,000 people in Australia affected by hoarding. That’s only an estimation because it is such a secretive act.”

Mick Fett**
“I call it super-collecting. It’s probably borderline collecting and hoarding but I’m actually proud of what I have.”

**Not real name

Brooke McAlary
“As I let go of stuff I became aware of the fact that I felt lighter and happier and more in control.”

Giovanna Walker
“I was genetically cursed because I had both parents that were chronic hoarders.”

Judy Nicholas
“I don’t think I’ll be cured I think I have come a long way in twelve years of de-cluttering but I’ve lost my husband in the meantime.”

Tuesdays at 8.30pm on SBS.

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