Hoarding Till It Hurts: Thoughts on “Coming Clean” by Kimberly Miller
“Hoarders was on TV for two years before I could bring myself to watch it. . . I wanted to see what the world saw when they were exposed to hoarding. The houses with children were the ones that broke me down. I remember what it felt like to look at a parent who loves you and to be ashamed of the them, and be ashamed that you are ashamed. . .
Episode after episode, I cried. . . because I knew there were people, millions of people who watched shows like this for fun. People who laughed and feigned gagging, who would never really understand what it felt like to live like that.”
Kimberly Miller is heartbreakingly honest in her memoir “Coming Clean.” She shares what it was like to grow up with a father who hoarded and a mother whose coping mechanism was shopping, how it impacted the person she became, and how she deals with it even now as an adult.
Before the show Hoarders came out, I think many of us didn’t realize what a real and disturbing compulsion hoarding is. I think many of us still don’t quite grasp it. I have a friend who we’ve teasingly called a hoarder, because she saves little tokens from every concert, fancy date, or trip she enjoys. She may have a lot of stuff, but she’s not a hoarder in the same way Kimberly’s dad is.
