Mountains Of Filth And Rotting Food, Inside The Secret Lives Of Hoarders
Oct. 11 2012, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter
As the Las Vegas authorities continue to sift through the mountains of trash, rotting food and dead cats in the house of compulsive hoarder, Kenneth Epstein, Breaking Celebrity News takes an in-depth look into the troubled mindset of people who just can't throw anything away.
"Many people use hoarding as a coping mechanism. They get a high from acquiring belongings and then the fear of discarding something that they might need in the future causes them not to want to get rid of it," explained Dr. Becky Beaton, psychologist and clinical expert on TLC's Hoarding: Buried Alive tells Breaking Celebrity News in an exclusive interview.
Like many aspects of our personalities – good or bad – hoarding is often hereditary, and a shocking 84 percent of sufferers have at least one relative who hoards.
"There may be a genetic component that is handed down from generation to generation," said Dr. Beaton. "It is also learned behavior so they may have learned it from a family member. We don’t know if it is nature or nurture but it may be a combination of each."
Despite often being ankle-deep in rubbish, old newspapers and take away containers, and choking on the smell of degradation, many sufferers don't realize they have a problem until family members per