Live can be so frustration for a person suffering from compulsive hoarding. If have a family member who loves hording rubbish you can see the following behaviours.
- She has for some reason a problem with rubbish bins and tries to avoid them for some unexplained reasons.
- She puts rubbish usually in cupboards, corners of rooms, behind cupboards or any objects, in shelves, in her pockets, in the washing machine (and destroyed our washing machine completely because we noticed it when it was too late), in any bags …
- If we tell her about the problem, she would deny or get very upset.
- Sometimes we think that she is unaware of what she is doing. Sometimes I’m next to her and watch her putting rubbish in a plastic bag next to the bin instead of directly in the bin. She would do so even with the dogs poo bags and not notice any smell or if flies are coming. It is really disgusting.
- Other days we think it could be attention seeking, but she maybe really doesn’t remember …
Or actions to prevent her from rubbish hording included
- social stories
- posters, signs
- visual and verbal reminders
- checklists
- video taping, photos
- more supervision
It would be great if we could hear from other parents who deal with rubbish hording adults.
On the other hand she loves cleaning the floor in a compulsive manner. All is very weird …
