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Maybe this was talked about on the show, I missed the first half. Is there a good way to introduce this idea to someone who is a hoarder? What kind of help is there for them?

My mother is a hoarder. For she and my father she has two full-size refrigerators with freezers, a separate full-size deep freezer, and a pantry that is full of every kind of pasta, cereal, dessert topping, ingredient, etc... Every day when she comes home from work she stops at the store to get more food. It is a constant cycle of food being thrown away by my father because it has rotted and her being angry that he is throwing away her things. She'll say things like, "Well, if you'd just put it in the freezer it would still be good." It's always a Russian Roulette of whether or not you are going to get something that is edible or not. Not to mention how hard it is to watch them throw away thousands of dollars worth of food every year while she at the same time complains about how they have no money.

The hoarding goes beyond food. Listening to the last part of the show today sounded exactly like listening to my mother. The stacks of paper everywhere that just might have a dollar bill tucked between them... Clothes, books, towels, silverware, newspapers, you name it, she's got it. Can anyone offer some advice? It sometimes feels like I've lost her to this and I just want my mother back.

posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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