Next Tuesday, there will be a screening of "My Mother's Garden" at Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. It’s the true story of a woman who is a hoarder and how her problem spun so out of control that her entire family was caught in the storm.
There may be more than 2 million people in this country who collect things that have no value. Slowly their house is so filled with junk there’s no where to sit, no where to eat, no where to live. That means guests are not allowed into the house and family members are left with chaos, but not control.
Today Elizabeth Nelson is an active member of the online support group, ChildrenofHoarders.com. She has found strength and understanding from others who share the experiences of her childhood.
“There’s this deep dark secret we’re ashamed of,” said Elizabeth. “One room is off limits and it never gets cleaned up, another room starts to fall to the wayside. If that process is going on in a house where you’re writing off spaces of your home that you can’t use any more. And particularly if the person you suspect is a potential hoarder is not open to help.”
When her mom’s house got to this state, Elizabeth and her siblings swooped in and cleaned it out.
Dr Jim Abelson is a professor of psychiatry and the director of the Anxiety Disorders Program at the University of Michigan Health System.
“With hoarding, the distress is often felt by the children and the family members, the person who hoards does not feel like it’s a problem,” he said.
He says hoarding is a psychological disorder that is challenging to treat because the need to possess is similar to an addict’s need for drugs.
“The drive to save in severe hoarders is of that intensity. Discarding things that evoke intense emotional distress is difficult but it gets easier with time,” he explained.
The movie that is being shown Tuesday is a documentary about a California woman whose hoarding was so out of control she had to sleep in the yard and climb thru a window to get into her home.
It is told from the perspective of her daughter.
This affects friends and neighbors who have the most immaculate gardens that you’ve seen and they’re struggling.
Elizabeth says learning more about the condition has helped improve her relationship with her mother.
“There was a lot of anger and resentment. I think a lot of people who grow up like me carry this for a very long time,” she said.
