The Fear of Getting Rid of Stuff

**AmyBoz** · 01-30-2006, 07:53 PM

So sad. I'm sure that none of us suffer from this (and if any of us do, the rest of us can certainly be shoulders for you to lean on) but the pictures are fascinating to look at, and certainly can be inspirational to get you cleaning and decluttering FAST.

http://www.disposophobia.com/

**mizniteowl** · 01-30-2006, 08:09 PM

Wow, that one picture I didn't even realize it was a kitchen!

**midwestgal** · 01-30-2006, 08:45 PM

I'm a minimalist, but when I see those photos, I want to do more decluttering! It is really hard to believe that anyone could be enslaved by so much stuff. Very sad indeed.

**baxjul** · 01-30-2006, 09:04 PM

OMG. I didn't even recognize the rooms.

I'm thinking my house is pretty clean now.

**Pepper** · 01-30-2006, 09:15 PM

This is truly sad. I have seen this first hand and it really breaks my heart

**canadian gardener** · 01-31-2006, 10:14 AM

too real. I've a friend with a problem, and while she is getting better, it's a long slow road. I've known her since 1989, and she is still a lot like this but somewhat better. I've mentioned her before in the thread where we talked about squalor.

http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/index.shtml is the site we were discussing that day. Similar to this disposophobia site.

It's shocking and appalling when you first bump into it.

Oprah did a show on it, then a followup.

In the first show the How Clean is Your House? ladies cleaned a woman up with this disorder.

Oprah was starting to get a clue by the end of her first show, and got her some help from a specialist (link at her site if anyone has a friend or relative with this disorder).

The followup showed that even with help, she has a long slow road to recovery with lots of relapses.

I'm glad she didn't just blow it off.

It's a real disorder and the people caught in it, are in a lot of pain, and very real risk of serious illness brought on by living in their own personal landfill.

Just "helping" them clean won't make a difference. In fact it can make it worse. That stuff is there for some kind of protection from the world and when well meaning people like the How Clean is Your House ladies come along and shovel them out, it just creates more fear and panic.

The only way out is something like AA for alcoholics. They have to want help, and then something like the link above or the therapist on Oprah's site can give them the help.

But just digging them out won't help.

People presume it's because the house just "got away from them" or they don't know how to clean, or they just got overwhelmed by it.

When actually it's far more about being terrified to toss stuff, and having a panic disorder problem when they try. Their comfort level is only reached when they are behind a certain level of trash like a fort built up around them.