The move was a disaster! My mom couldn't handle the thought of
loosing her things. She became depressed and isolated. About 3 weeks
ago she tried to kill herself by overdosing on Tylenole. We were so
relieved that she was OK, but now we are stuck again, what do we do now?...

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This form was submitted:  Aug 11 2007 / 11:49:25

story =

Looking back on my childhood my memories of my mother aren't
very happy ones. She was always angry at something or someone. She had
"her things" that were never to be touched or eaten. Nothing was ever my
own, not even my garbage. I would clean my room and throw out old
school assignments only to find them on my desk the next day. I knew there
was a problem when I had invited some friends over to my house when I
was in 6th grade. One of my friends said, " Wow, my mom would never let
us keep the house this messy, you must love it here!" Needless to say I
rarely invited friends over after that day.

My dad has always
encouraged my mom to get help, even before we knew what she was suffering from,
but any attemps to help usaully resulted in catastrophy. She would
scream and shout and lash out on my dad and my siblings and I. She even
went as far as buying half the stuff back that we had donated to good
will. She would claim to never have enough money to buy us new clothes
or other things we wanted, but I watched her spend hundreds of dollars
on junk, clothing and furniture for her ever growing collection. I
remember she once bought me a bra (from good will of course) that was not
even close to my actual size and telling me that, "I'll just pin it so
it fits" She still can't understand why I was so upset over the bra.

This behavior has continued for years and my dad has finally had enough.
He recently bought a new home and started moving in. He had hoped that
a new home would motivate my mom to get it together and they could
start over. The move was a disaster! My mom couldn't handle the thought of
loosing her things. She became depressed and isolated. About 3 weeks
ago she tried to kill herself by overdosing on Tylenole. We were so
relieved that she was OK, but now we are stuck again, what do we do now?
Trying to help her only seems to make her worse, but we can't live the way
we were living and we can't let her continue to self distruct and
push her family away.

I've always longed for a mother that was never
  available emotionally to me, my siblings and my dad. Like many children
with hoarding parents I feel like my mother cares more about her
things than her family. Her suicide attempt was frightening but it made me
so angry to think that she could remove herself from this life and her
"things" but she can't live without them and build a new life with her
family the people that love and care about her, her "things" can't do
that for her! I'm sorry. I am angry and frustrated beyond belief, this is
making me crazy.