FAITH LAPIDUS: The American public has shown deep interest in the strange behavior of animal hoarders like the people in New York. Several television channels show reality programs about hoarders. Reality programs present events as they happen, such as the rescue of animals from hoarders’ homes.
Television cameras capture the sadness of the owners as animal police take away their pets. And the cameras show the struggles of the hoarders and the efforts of people who want to help them.
Gregory Chasson is a mental health expert and professor at Towson University in Maryland. He says the public’s interest in hoarding programs comes from most people’s own natural human desire to collect things.
The professor says that for most people, this simply means behavior like keeping too many papers or having a little clutter. But he says hoarding becomes a mental health problem when it interferes with normal life.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Professor Chasson says compulsive hoarding is extremely difficult to treat. He says hoarders are less likely than others to recognize that they have a problem. But he suggests that cognitive-behavioral therapy can help. In this method, hoarders work with an expert to understand why they gather and save so many things.
When reasons are found for the hoarding, he says, people can develop a plan for organization. They can learn how to decide what to throw away. They can learn to resist the urge to bring home more things.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25