Posted by Dinah on March 11, 2004, at 9:25:13
In reply to Re: Hoarding » Dinah, posted by fallsfall on March 10, 2004, at 10:07:35
Your sister sounds as practical as you are, Fallsfall. I think I'd like her.
My therapist thinks the hoarding is a sign of OCD in my Mom, but I think it's a sign of Oppositional Defiant Disorder. It's kind of a funny story.
My mother's parents were poor farmers, so they tended to keep anything that may someday be useful. They had a junk heap outside and stuff piled inside. So my mother grew up with it. But she kept it reasonably sane for most of my life. In other words, she might keep the food section of every paper, never mind that she didn't cook, but she didn't keep the whole paper.
Then came Reagan's reelection campaign. She became certain that the papers were biased against him and decided to cut out all the articles that showed bias. So for the months of the campaign, she started keeping every section of the newspaper that might contain political news, because she never got the chance to read them.
Then my father and I made our fatal tactical error. At the end of the campaign, we told my mother she could stop saving the paper and throw out the ones she had saved. They were starting to pile up. Now, no one tells my mother what to do. She has the dubious distinction of being forced into early retirement because she was about to be fired as a union protected teacher. Nothing to do with teaching, but because no administrator could tell her what to do. We waved a red cloth to a bull, and she responded by keeping every section of every newspaper from that day to this. And any objection on account of health or safety or aesthetics or practicality is seen as an attempt by us to control her. She's also smart enough that reverse psychology doesn't work.
It's really kind of amusing if it were a make believe character. Less amusing in an elderly lady with a husband in a wheelchair with limited mobility and mice and roaches.
poster:Dinah
thread:322154
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040305/msgs/323191.html