Saturday, May 8, 2010

Hoarding, Security & Weight

I was watching a show on TLC the other day and was shocked.  Some of ya'll have probably seen it - Hoarding: Buried Alive.  I was shocked at the pain that this one lady was going through.  She was a single mom to a teenage son and she was holding onto things from when he was a baby.  I understand holding onto a few things, but anything that her son had ever had she kept.  She also had a lot of other crap, but her pain and emotion was tied to his stuff.  She explained it to her doctor that it was a security for her to have this stuff around.  When she said that something went off in my head, food is my security.  This lady collects stuff and hoards it to make her feel better and I eat to make myself feel better.  Now I had known eating = security for me, but to actually see someone going through essentially the same thing but with stuff, it all made sense in my mind.  Does that sound crazy? 

It made me realize that I did not become this fat overnight and the weight is not going to fall off of me overnight.  It also made me realize that I have to put a lot more effort in the mental aspect of losing weight than I have been.  I have been so focused on the physical aspect I have kind of ignored the mental.  Since seeing that show everytime I pick something up to eat it I mentally think if I really need it or not.  It sounds simple, but to actually implement the task is hard.  It's like the hoarding lady, she eventually cleaned her house and got rid of a lot of stuff but her doctor told her from now on when she wants to keep something to ask herself if she really NEEDED it or not. 

So far so good.  I know I am going to run into roadblocks and will slip from time to time but it's ok.  It's all part of the process. 

5 comments:

  1. What a great way to look at things! I am addicted to Hoarders. It makes we want to totally clean my house from top to bottom, but I never thought about applying the mental techniques to eating habits. I will DEFINITELY be doing that from now on. What a great idea...Thanks so much!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It does not sound simple - it is hard and each of us here knows that...just like the woman on that show. I've watched it - and I watch Intervention on after it. Amazing life-changing shows.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have a friend here in the UK who works for environmental health and this is the area that she specialises in, there are a suprising number of people who live like that. In fact there have been a couple of people killed in the last year or 2 by their tunnels collapsing in on them, its so sad.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have lived though the hoarding nightmare with my mother. My story did not have a happy ending though. Although I managed to trap (at send to a no-kill feral shelter) all the feral cats that were living in my mother's house, she is at it again. The strays are lined up at her door!http://brooklynbooklover.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete