Carolyn, in Idaho, has agreed to go on the show to seek treatment for her disorder of hoarding.

There's a twist to her psychiatric disorder because not only does her OCD cause her to hoard, she steals most of the things she accumulates.

It began for her in earnest when her husband died, so she says.

Her children are at their wits end. Her son-in-law described how when they left a restaurant she'd put the entire bowl with food, into the styrofoam container to take home with her, as one example of her kleptomania.

She steals from her children's homes. Prominently featured in her home are the LDS pics of Jesus Christ.

Kleptomania is OCD too, right? She has both. Well, hope she gets the help she needs. Even Mormons aren't immune from mental disease. Mormonism may be a trigger for it!

Carolyn's daughter, Melissa, has just learned her mom had stolen some important genealogy papers she'd been missing for a long time. She is so furious at her mom she was ready to walk off. That the family is Mormon was then mentioned on Hoarders.

And Carolyn's son's high school class ring that had been missing from 20 years suddenly turned up while cleaning her hoard.

Lots of little surprises. He wondered what had happened to it.

Can this TBM family be saved? ")

Does she hang with Ted & Mark?
Give the lady a promotion so she can be on the A list!!

That show scares me and I always clean out some closet furiously in terror after watching it.

I wonder if she tithes or even still attends? If so why wasn’t anyone from the church helping with the clean out (as would happen in a normal church with paid employees for instance?).

Haha. I am making a joke about anyone from the cult helping this lady. :)

It appeared only her immediate family was there to assist with the cleanup. They were also the ones threatening with cutting off ties if she didn't get help.

The hoarding is bad enough. It seems worse by degrees when realizing most of her hoard was the result of theft. Not only from her loved ones, but from retail establishments. Her daughter was ready to turn her into authorities. I'm surprised she hasn't been arrested for shoplifting.

I'm guessing that she might have stolen from ward members as well, so in a way, it's understandable why nobody from the church was there to help.

That very well may be.

I would have a difficult time having a known thief into my home, family or no family.

I was asked to help an inactive hoarder when I was Mormon. She was Mormon, but hadn't attended in many years. I went with her visiting teacher, but we didn't make much progress. It's hard to help someone who doesn't really want to get rid of anything.

I did a lot of service for my ward members. It's likely that her fellow Mormons have tried to help. It's a really hard problem to tackle.

Mel, typically on these TV shows only the immediate family and sometimes extended family are called in to help. I wouldn't expect to see church members there.

I believe there has been a past episode filmed in Utah where some local people did come out to help that were from the woman's community. They appeared to be LDS. But typically they are only from the person's immediate family or close friends. And the people hired from the network show.

Keep in mind that had Rusty not laid down the law, then you might have seen some family members appearing on the show while wearing name tags that read "Hi my name is ____ ______ and I'm a Mormon!

Like mel, I start thinking I must be a hoarder or my house isn't clean enough and I go on a cleaning binge. I am far from a hoarder and my house is clean (most of the time). But the show fascinates me. I just don't understand how anyone can live like that and how they can't see what they are doing.

One common theme many hoarders have in common is they have experienced some catastrophic tragic loss/es that they haven't been able to reconcile in their lives. Instead they buried themselves in stuff as a way to manage their sense of losing control over their lives. It becomes like alcoholism or other addictions if left untreated. The worst cases seem to be the ones highlighted on the television series.

It is a sickness very much a disease.

Some of the episodes are so bad there are times I've had to change the channel. I cannot fathom not having potable water or a clean bathroom or kitchen or even pathways in my home to get back and forth. Watching Hoarders though reminds me of my own tendencies to be a pack rat. And I'm capable of becoming one if I let myself go. I love to shop. I have to rein myself in not to be a shopaholic.

I force myself to donate things to Goodwill and Salvation Army. My early childhood was on a farm where I roamed the countryside and was free as a bird most of the time. As an only girl I had my own room, and although not a neat freak, I could pretty much keep things how I chose. When my parents wanted me to clean up in a hurry my quick fix was to throw everything under the bed lol. I don't do that anymore, but as a child it made perfect sense. :)

My never Mo grandmother in Ogden wasn't exactly a hoarder but she was an avid collector of just about anything artsy and antiques. Her house was a small cape cod. When we'd go visit it was like stepping into a storybook cottage. It was filled from top to bottom with so many wonderful things to look at and adore. My grandmother knew the history of each piece she owned. If we had a question about something, she would relate the period and the history of that item. She could have been a curator for an art museum!

She had a place for everything and everything in its place. She was admittedly a shopaholic. She used to say that shopping for her was her therapy. It saved her tons in psychiatric bills. Whenever she had the blues or mild depression she went shopping. It made her feel better. Her buys were like trophies to her.

She had such a collection that when she died what wasn't spoken for by her children was sent off to be sold at auction in San Francisco.

I miss my grandmother most of all. More than her trophies and possessions. If she can hear me upstairs, I hope she remembers me. :)

There's a Mormon lady in a town near where I live whose hoarding has gotten so out of control that not only is her house full, she has boxes, crates & barrels stacked on her front porch and covering her front yard. Many of her neighbors tolerate her hoarding not only because she is a member of the tribe, but also because they say real estate promoters and rich folks take one look at her place and it stops them from wanting to turn that little town into the next exclusive getaway for the rich and famous :-)

Sadly enough, someone will eventually turn her into Adult Protective Services for her own safety and welfare. They end up becoming a danger to themselves and others who live with them. It's for their own good although they're in denial and are usually the last ones to seek treatment for the problem.

I have a 'collection' of about 6k LPs, does that qualify?

You can take this quiz and find out if you are or not.

https://www.additudemag.com/screener-hoarding-spectrum-symptoms-test-adults/

If I take it, will my results be posted for anyone/everyone to see?

In a hoarding minute lol.

In reality only if you want them to.

What's this 'reality' you mention???

I wonder if she ever stolen from the temple

Being a kleptomaniac she seems to have no self-control over her actions. Besides being a compulsive hoarder. And a Mormon. So the likelihood is high.

Hoarding is also a hygienic and fire hazard. Vermin, deceased pets and human bodies have been found buried in clutter. In my jurisdiction, multiple agencies, and utilities, will respond. I'm very proud of my city, Boston, for dealing with this.

If you're helping a person declutter, a heads up: It may be wise to go through things WIITHOUT the person present, as he will say, "I need that, no, don't throw that..." And go through papers carefully, methodically. There may be legal and financial documents, like old stock certificates, that are important.

My husband’s mother was a horrible hoarder. They could of done a show on her. My husband was in the military, so we couldn’t see family as much, especially when stationed overseas.
She always had a lot of junk. The House was a little crowded, but clean. All of a sudden, within a year, stuff was everywhere. She had a health episode later, and we drove up when we heard. My husband talked to the EMTs who took her to the hospital, and they told him they had a hard time bringing the stretcher upstairs because stuff was all over and they had a hard time getting in.
We went to the house and they weren’t kidding. The kitchen, living room, bedrooms, all filled.
The worse was the steps were all covered , LITERALLY, with junk.
My husband thought the EMT crew would report it, but they didn’t. He was so upset over that.That would of helped her to get help.
They said that they didn’t do that.
He took leave from work to get rid of a lot of stuff, mainly putting it in storage .
She had lots of empty candy wrappers and old food underneath the piles of stuff in the living room

How many cats does she have ?

Cat hoarders are the worst. One was featured yesterday morning that every single one of his cats was in deplorable condition, and many were dead inside his home. That's all the crew did was clean out the cats. He was charged with animal cruelty and neglect. He showed barely any emotion at all throughout the process. He was either stuffing it inside or he really didn't understand what he'd been doing.

The cat collectors pop up every once in a while, but generally it's just "stuff."

Once I attended a training on the topic. Facilitators said that statistically, once a hoard is cleaned up, it’s right back that way within one year.

I noticed that hoarders generally start out all “appreciative” when help arrives, but then you start noticing a real mean streak come out.

Some of the offerings at ward dinners have come from situations like that.

My last boyfriend in Minneapolis is a hoarder. When i'd clean up a mess in his kitchen, he'd come right behind and replace it with one more of the same within hours. It was infuriating. He didn't tell me he was a hoarder before we met or I'd have ran the opposite direction lol.

His neighbors would report him periodically to code enforcement to clean up his yard and around his property. His house was no better but at least they didn't have to see that. It's a fire hazard every single day.

Worse yet is the guy is a landlord and owns a couple other properties he rents out and maintains. When I knew him someone was suing him for poor maintenance of one of them that caused a slip and fall injury. Maybe not so surprising.

It's a mental disorder caused by a form of OCD. His "trigger" may have stemmed from losing his wife when he was only 30, and she was 27. When she died suddenly he was left to raise their six-month old infant son on his own. he never remarried except once. And that ended in disaster. When I knew him he was an elderly widower whose hoard had grown up around him in his little lakeside home. He told me before we met he wanted to marry me and we'd live together in his lakeside house. And that he was busy cleaning it before we met for the first time.

Well, when we finally did meet I realized that was a ruse. Even though he was the son of a Lutheran pastor and a devout Christian that didn't stop him from telling fibs. So instead of having a clean house to show me when my plane touched down in Minnesota, he told me he was busy writing me poetry instead. And in I walked into his hoard. I was mortified. If it wasn't late at night i'd have turned around and gone right back to the airport.

Learning he was a hoarder was easier on me than when i discovered he was a womanizer. That cut me to the core. He was an online dating addict. If not for my meeting him in person I may not have discovered that. But helping him try to clean up his mess I'd come across names of women he'd scribbled and their phone numbers. And when he took me to the library with him to peruse the Internet I happened to catch him reading the dating sites when he didn't think I was watching. That ended our fledgling romance rather abruptly.

His house was so bad I would find rotting fruit and food on his floor under newspapers and boxes. He wouldn't let me throw them away if he was in view of that. He'd say they were edible. They weren't. (I'd throw them away when he wasn't there.) The fruit flies and spiders in his house were his "pets." Moldy magazines and decades old junk ready for the junkyard it all had a purpose to him. He'd be a perfect candidate for the show "Hoarders." But I doubt he'd ever volunteer for that because he's in so much denial. He doesn't see himself as a hoarder. He has boxes up to the ceiling in every room of his house with barely any room to get around. His garage is even worse. I dunno when he dies what his only child is going to do. He may need a bulldozer to clean out his dad's house.

And he still brings things home from rummage sales and such exclaiming "Look what I found today!" He'd get so excited over his finds even though there was nowhere for them to go.

He was a sweet fella if it weren't for his OCD with women and stuff. He was always quoting scripture and trying to get me on some of his dating sites lol. I felt like asking him how that's been working for him? AFter all these years he's still playing the field.

Amyjo!

So, next to that 'guy', I know I'll look Real Good in your eyes!


the abbreviation for the airport here is SEA, lots of SWA flights, some cheap if U purchase in advance!!

sign me...
Waiting, clean, not-a-hoarder, & Hopeful :)

Sorry GNPE, but I'm not a nudist. Hahaha.

Plus, I've swore off online dating for good.

Oh be quiet you bzzybee.

I'm happily single and plan on staying that way.

GNPE will meet someone probably when he's not even looking.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2019 07:33PM by Amyjo.

I've never had an online relationship, so I'm a bit out of the loop as to how these things go, but, as I understand it -

You get to know this bloke online, fly in to his town to meet him for the first time, visit his house of horrors in rural Minnesota late at night, can't escape, but stay in Minnesota, he becomes (or continues being) your boyfriend, doesn't shake the hoarding habit, and then you find out that he is a womaniser in that he is talking to other women online, and then you pull the pin?

Wow.

Is that how it works in Australia?

I hope not. I do live next door to a hoarder though, a lovely lady who has a yard full of her son's old cars and other junk, that she cant bear to clear out. Her son moved to another country, and I suspect there was some trauma involved, but I haven't asked. Its very tempting just to take stuff out for the regular hard waste collection without her knowledge, but I suspect that's not recommended. I do keep her lawn trimmed though, dodging around the old trampolines and bicycles.

Only problem with your scenario is Minneapolis is not rural MN, we have tall buildings and everything.

Yes I remember Minneapolis from the Mary Tyler Moore show, there were some tall buildings there. I was extrapolating from Amyjo's spooky story of her visit to meet her boyfriend for the first time.


I also remember seeing a touring show in Sydney in the 1980s by a very funny guy called Kevin Kling, called The 21A - Bus Ride to the Bizarre, about six people on a late night bus running between Minneapolis and St Paul.

It wasn't really spooky. It was just that he totally misrepresented his house to me. It was on a lake, so that much was truthful. I loved that the basement spare room was a daylight basement with a walkout door and window to the lake in the backyard. It was a beautiful view in the morning.

The only thing I could find lovely about his house was the ceilings, because they were ornate and were high ceilings. And were the only places in his house that wasn't cluttered. There was hope for his house if he just got inspired to do something about it.

It's a bit more complicated than that, but you pretty much nailed it.

It was a long distance romance, so I didn't live with him during that time. We just visited occasionally.

all part of life's rich tapestry...

This is but one example of the many people with assorted troubles that the Church is poorly suited to help.

Unless someone breaks the commandments, what can a bishop say? Even then, a bishop can be told to "go away" (to be polite).

Church policies that promote "all or nothing thinking" aren't helpful. When people are taught that they are "worthy," but can be crushed to "unworthy" in a moment irregular progress can't be recognized.

A drug addict was being counselled with prayer committed suicide after a relapse. His setback shouldn't have been fatal, but in his mind it was.

In a way if you think about it, TSCC enables some of its members in becoming hoarders.

We're taught as good little Morgbots to "waste not want not." To be thrifty and salvage anything that has value so as not to throw something away if it has any use. (Mindset of a hoarder!)

Whenever I've walked into a Deseret Industries thrift store I'm constantly reminded of the inventory that is mostly donated by members of TSCC. It's often threadbare and not really of much use to someone else in that condition. Or very outdated and out of style.

Your point about the church policies proving to be fatalistic does have tragic outcomes. The it's either "black or white" thinking has been done without acknowledging the nuances, is deadly.

In my family there weren't too many who I consider as hoarders, if any. But we do/have had a lot of pack rats and scavengers.

From parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents who lived through the Great Depression they knew what it was like to go without. So they really didn't like to waste very much or throw things away.

My children I consider to be minimalists, moreso than myself. One is a sentimentalist though, like me. At least I passed it onto one of them! :)