
"Hoarders" is an often painful look inside a disease that can bury its sufferer -- literally at times -- in its symptoms. Each hourlong episode profiles two people on the verge of a personal crisis, all caused by the fact that they are unable to part with even the tiniest possessions, and the cumulative effect becomes a mountain of junk and garbage overtaking their home or apartment. If they don't respond to professional help, the consequences sometimes involve eviction, kids being taken away, or even jail time.

The parents of four children must clean out their entire house or risk losing everything; a retired veterinarian's dozens of costly collections have come at the expense of his marriage and lifestyle.

A woman has more than 30 sickly cats; a teacher's hoard has already cost her a job.

A hoarding woman may lose her daughter; a groom never moved in to his wife's cluttered house.

A series of tragedies triggers hoarding that causes a woman to lose custody of her son to her ex-husband; Child Protective Services arrives with police at a couple's squalid home to remove their four children.