History Series / Hoarders

--->''"These children that she has raised, don't have ability to communicate without yelling (they continue shouting at each other as crew members attempt to break it up) This family is probably the largest family I've ever seen, and it is by far, the most dysfunctional family I have '''''ever''''' seen."''

** A regular {{Manchild}} with a mental disability got his own little Crowning Moment of Awesome by standing up to his mom, who would leave her dolls in his room for months and might have even stolen his money to buy more dolls.

* AxeCrazy: Ricky (S7 E5). At one point, he hurled a steak knife at one of the cameramen.

** Hanna (S3 E19) and her family. Hanna herself is an elderly animal hoarder who lives in a single-wide trailer filled with chickens, turkeys and other farmyard birds crammed into tiny cages caked with filth. She has 16 children, 10 of which are still alive during filming, all of whom she physically abused growing up. When they return to the house to attempt to clean it, all hell breaks loose as the family scream, swear and physically assault each other that the crew (both the cleaners ''and'' the therapists) had to intervene. Dr. Zasio summed it up well:
--->''"These children that she has raised, don't have ability to communicate without yelling (they continue arguing as crew members attempt to break it up) This family is probably the largest family I've ever seen, and it is by far, the most dysfunctional family I have '''''ever''''' seen."''

** A regular ManChild with a mental disability got his own little Crowning Moment of Awesome by standing up to his mom, who would leave her dolls in his room for months and might have even stolen his money to buy more dolls.

** Hanna (S3 E19) and her family. Hanna herself is an elderly animal hoarder who lives in a single-wide trailer filled with chickens, turkeys and other farmyard birds crammed into tiny cages caked with filth. She has 16 children, 10 of which are still alive during filming, all of whom she physically abused growing up. When they return to the house to attempt to clean it, all hell breaks loose as the family scream, swear and physically assault each other that the crew actually had to intervene. Dr. Zasio summed it up well:

* FromBadToWorse: The story of Terry the cat hoarder (S6 E18). At first, she had all the cats she hoarded spayed or neutered. Then her money ran out and the cats began breeding out of control. They began dying of respiratory problems, and she didn't want to bury them and couldn't afford to cremate them, so she saved their bodies in her freezer. Then her freezer ran out of room and her refrigerator quickly filled up with rotting cat corpses. Then she started putting them in Ziploc bags and stuffing them into a closet.

** Gary (S3 E19), a middle-aged bunny-hoarder who hides in his bedroom or flounces off in a huff rather than speak with the professionals sent to help him. At one point he ''throws a water bottle at his wife'' Kathy "[[{{Jerkass}} because [he] felt like it]]". Ultimately, even though the rabbits are his problem, Kathy is the one who ends up dealing with them while Gary sulks, pouts, throws tantrums, and gives the film crew the finger like a spoiled, sullen five-year-old.

** Hanna (S3 E19) and her family. Hanna herself is an elderly animal hoarder who lives in a single-wide trailer filled with chickens, turkeys and other farmyard birds crammed into tiny cages caked with filth. She has 16 children, 10 of which are still alive during filming, all of whom she physically abused growing up. When they return to the house to attempt to clean it, all hell breaks loose as the family scream, swear and physically assault each other in front of the ''Hoarders'' crew. Dr. Zasio summed it up well:

* FromBadToWorse: The story of Terry (S6 E8) the cat hoarder. At first, she had all the cats she hoarded spayed or neutered. Then her money ran out and the cats began breeding out of control. They began dying of respiratory problems, and she didn't want to bury them and couldn't afford to cremate them, so she saved their bodies in her freezer. Then her freezer ran out of room and her refrigerator quickly filled up with rotting cat corpses. Then she started putting them in Ziploc bags and stuffing them into a closet.

** Gary (S3 E19), a middle-aged bunny-hoarder who hides in his bedroom or flounces off in a huff rather than speak with the professionals sent to help him. At one point he ''throws a water bottle at his wife'' Kathy "because [he] felt like it". Ultimately, even though the rabbits are his problem, Kathy is the one who ends up dealing with them while Gary sulks, pouts, throws tantrums, and gives film crews the finger like a spoiled, sullen five-year-old.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: If you watch the first season after viewing subsequent offerings, you will find that the cases have gotten increasingly dire. One early episode featured a guy whose house was jam-packed with stuff (to the point where going up and down the stairs was something of a Tetris exercise), but whose home was essentially hygienic. The show's counselor warned him that things would get worse if he didn't accept help, but he insisted that he would be able to take care of it himself. When the show revisited some weeks later...the house was effectively decluttered, much to the owner's self-satisfaction. This would be unthinkable in most later-season episodes.

* AllForNothing: Some cases end with the hoarder refusing aftercare and filling their home right back up with junk.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: One of the male organizers, who is usually a very nice guy, is not afraid to be a bad ass and deliver a verbal beatdown to the Hoarder. It seems his BerserkButton is when the hoarder puts their loot over their own family.

* AbusiveParents: More than one hoarder has been a victim of this or has done this to their children. One egregious case was Wilma, from Season 4. She repeatedly said, that she never wanted her children and would not have had them. As detailed below, she also confessed on camera to chaining her son to a bed as a punishment. She even had him go to the hardware store with her to pick out the chains, on the pretext that they were for the dog.
** In the "victim" column, we can place Michael (S6 E7). His father was not only abusive, but a former member of the Nazi SS. In that episode, Micheal's once told a story where their father cooked and served their pet rabbit for dinner (for no other reason 'sides to hurt the former).
-->'''Micheal''': "I really knew my father was a monster from that day. That's probably the first time I started to look at him as a dark, frightening, murdering bag guy."

** In the "victim" column, we can place Michael (S6 E7). His father was not only abusive, but a former member of the Nazi SS. In that episode, Micheal's once told a story where their father cooked and served their pet rabbit for dinner.