Your parents or your child or your sister or your brother or your best friend has a home that is stuffed to the gills with stuff. The dining room table is covered in piles, the kitchen is full of dirty dishes and garbage, even the sofa is piled so high with junk that nobody can sit. Perhaps some of the exits are blocked, and if there are stairs, chances are that there are even little piles of junk there. Maybe the paths through these rooms are narrowed down to "goat trails." Perhaps the furnace is broken or the plumbing is leaking or the appliances need servicing because nobody can come do the necessary work because of the clutter.
You worry about what will happen if someone gets sick or injured in the hoard, or BECAUSE OF THE HOARD. How will the paramedics get in? What if there is a fire, how would people escape when
the junk goes up like a tinderbox? Maybe there are kids who are forced to live in the mess and you need to figure out how to help them.
You want to do something to help, but what do you do?
The sad fact of hoarding is that so many people who hoard are extremely resistant to help and change. We, the family and friends, are either shut out from helping entirely or we jump into the EXHAUSTING process of dehoarding a house, only to watch the situation return to the way it was and even get worse, in
what seems like the blink of an eye.
We feel impossibly torn – we hold ourselves responsible for our loved one's wellbeing and safety and yet it seems like we are powerless to change the problem.
To make matters worse, until recently, there wasn't a lot of guidance on how to help someone with a serious hoarding problem.
But now, there's a book that speaks directly to us, the family and friends of people with SERIOUS hoarding problems:
Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding and Compulsive Acquiring, Book Link: http://amzn.to/gFA9PI
In the words of the publisher "Many people who hoard understand the extent of their problem and are open to help. This book is not for them. Digging Out is for the concerned and frustrated friends and family members of people who do not fully accept the magnitude of their hoarding problem and refuse help from others. If you have a friend or loved one with a hoarding problem and are seeking a way to guide him or her to a healthier, safer way of life, this book is for you."
Digging Out gives specific harm reduction strategies to help anyone with a hoarding problem to live safely and comfortably in their home or apartment. This is not a book that promises to magically make the hoarding go away. Instead, it offers direct, specific strategies to:
• Manage health and safety hazards
• Avoid eviction
• Manage child protection issues
• Motivate your friend or relative to make longer-term lifestyle
changes
Learn how to:
• Handle a spouse or roommate with a hoarding problem
• Work through special problems faced by frail and elderly hoarders
• Heal strained relationships between people who hoard and their friends and family
If I could recommend just one resource for people who are living with the anxiety, shame and frustration of their loved one's hoarding issue, it would be Digging Out.
You can purchase Digging Out from Amazon: http://amzn.to/gFA9PI
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