More and more people around the country are being exposed to the phenomenon known as hoarding thanks to reluctant exposure from hit television series like A&E’s Hoarders and TLC’s Hoarders: Buried Alive. These documentaries feature hoarding specialists who uncover shocking and unhealthy living conditions within the homes of average people. While most of the country may have just started learning about this severe mental condition, there are many unfortunate souls who have had to deal with it every day of their lives. Willingly or not.

Some family members of hoarders become aware of the situation from afar. Others actually live amongst the clutter and mess with the hoarder. Both situations conjure deep, emotional responses. Whatever the case, families of hoarders are desperate for one thing: solving the hoarding problem.

Until recently, hoarding was never considered a mental condition. However, the American Psychiatric Association recently included hoarding as an official category in their manual entitled Dsm-5. With the inclusion of hoarding as a relevant topic in the mental health community, hoarders across the nation will now have access to more hoarding clean up services and mental health professionals than ever before who are devoted to finding a cure for the condition.

Families of hoarders can rest easier as well. The mental burdens and scars caused by living in a hoarded environment can cripple a person’s psyche and cause major problems their future. Jason Brunet, the child of a hoarder named Augustine featured on A&E’s Hoarders (Episode 7, 2009), and his sister were taken from their home in 1995 after Child Protective Services became aware of the deplorable conditions within the house.

Augustine’s condition caused her and her family to live without basic amenities like gas, water and heating for four long years. In a video published on Youtube on November 4, 2010, Jason called his home, "filthy and disgusting," a harbinger for rodents, roaches and fleas. Jason says, "I had to sleep with a fan on every night, even in the winter, because if I didn’t have the noise of the fan I could hear critters crawling around in the trash in my bedroom and it would terrify me."

Jason would suffer mental anguish unlike a typical teenage boy because of his mother’s hoarding condition. He says the stench from the home would "follow him" to school. Kids wouldn’t make fun of him for being overweight or unpopular. Instead, they would tease him about the stench that emanated from his clothing. A stench that, because he was a regular tenant of the household, he could not detect on his own.

Along with obtaining professional counseling for the condition, families of hoarders can also call on professional hoarding specialists like Address Our Mess. Address Our Mess offers its clients a confidential and intimate experience. Their number one objective is to put hoarders and their families on the right path to a healthy, happy home life. Josh Rafter, Co-Owner and Hoarding Specialist at Address Our Mess, ensures that he and his staff are regularly certified by Cory Chalmers, resident expert on A&E’s Hoarders. The entire staff at Address Our Mess is able to lend efficient yet nurturing service to hoarders in any situation.

Along with creating conditions that cause suffering in their families, hoarders themselves suffer as well. Address Our Mess specialists have found that in most cases, a tragic event has triggered the hoarding condition within an average person. By taking the first step and cleaning up the clutter and mess, hoarders can look at their life from a new perspective. Perhaps, with the clutter cleared out around their home, they can start to clear out the clutter in their minds and in their hearts.