Tomorrow We're Taking Your Leg: Hoarding & Suicide

I want to share this post by my friend & colleague Debbie Stanley, LLPC, NCC, CPO-CD:

My heart is breaking for Spencer Harris as I imagine what this was like for him.

I have often said that forced hoarding cleanouts are the psychological equivalent of involuntary surgery. Many people who hoard view their belongings as an extension of themselves, as Mr. Harris did. He killed himself on May 17, about a week after a 24-hour eviction notice was enforced on him. He was given a day--one day--to get out.

The eviction notice was issued by an official described as "experienced in handling hoarding situations."

News reports say Mr. Harris was given a temporary storage container in which to sort through his things and decide what to keep. In other words, an operatory in which to cut off his own leg, or arm, whichever he preferred.

They gave him a POD and a deadline. What he needed was a mental health professional and a psychologically realistic timeline. The introduction of a therapist truly "experienced in handling hoarding situations" and using the harm reduction approach would have greatly improved Mr. Harris's chances of developing better insight and integrating needed changes into his life, which by friends' accounts was vibrant and active.

24 hours to get gone. What must those 24 hours have been like for him? 24 hours of knowing that tomorrow, they'll be at the door to separate you from a part of yourself. Facing that sentence, perhaps you would flee and get a few states away before they could do it. But if you hoard, you can't carry all of yourself, all at one time. Paraphrasing Erma Bombeck, when you hoard you let your heart live outside your body, but people don't get that. Erma was talking about children. How can anyone care that much about stuff? It's just stuff.

And as long as the people in charge think it's just stuff, there will be more tragic endings.