Hoarders

Hoarders season nine is currently casting and filming. This may be the last season for the show that helps people with hoarding disorder who are in crisis.

Hoarders season finale—which could be the last episode for this on-the-bubble show— included Matt Paxton summarizing just what this show accomplishes.

Hoarders is now back on A&E, helping hoarders and their families deal with crises, and setting up families with aftercare to help treat the person affected by hoarding disorder. There are other shows, but Hoarders does it right: They not only send an organizer and a clean-up crew, but also a mental health professional, and provide funding for therapy and help after the cameras leave.

While I am a fan of both the television show and its work, I’m not the show’s production company, Screaming Flea Productions. Alas, I often receive e-mail from people telling me their story and asking for help, as they confuse me with the show.

Here’s how to apply.

Hoarders returned with a new season Sunday, and it was back on its original network, A&E. For season eight, the reality show also discarded some unnecessary junk: its short-lived subtitle, “Family Secrets,” which the show had during its 10-episode run on Lifetime last year.

Here’s a brief rundown of the show’s history.

On Hoarders, organizer Dorothy Breininger often pushes a person in crisis to make tough decisions about things that are destroying their lives. But she also sees herself as the protector and defender of that stuff: she cares about the trash that everyone else wants to throw away. Why? Isn’t that the exact opposite of what …

Hoarders has often been accused of sensationalizing and/or exploiting its subjects and their mental illness. I think the opposite is true, and I’ve long championed it and defended it, writing about it extensively, because it was strong reality television and an important series. In the six seasons that aired on A&E before it was cancelled, …

The return of Hoarders was confirmed by A+E Networks, and the series will officially switch networks to Lifetime and get a new subtitle along with live elements. This resurrection, which I first reported news of in early March, is yet another reality show being brought back from cancellation, including A&E’s reboot of Intervention. Hoarders returns May …