Posted on 01/09/2006 6:22:49 AM PST by plain talk
A woman in Shelton, Wash., who was reported missing by her husband, was found dead under piles of clutter in their home, where she suffocated to death, according to police. Shelton Police Chief Terry Davenport said the home was so cluttered that police officers' heads touched the ceiling as they climbed over the clutter.
Authorities found the body of 62-year-old Marie Rose buried under clothes after 10 hours of searching. She reportedly suffered from a condition known as hoarding. Rose's husband believes she fell while looking for the phone in the house this week and suffocated. There were so many piles of items that the man did not realize she was dead in the home.
(Excerpt) Read more at local6.com ...
ROFL!
I suffered from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrone) for years. I've been making use of the FlyLady.net website 2 years now and man.... life of the 'otherside' is MUCH better. Surpisingly, I found that I really DIDN'T need all the light bills from 1998! lol
"A condition known as hoarding"???? How about living like pigs? Let's tell it like it is.
Yep, all this stuff happens because of George Bush!
I think I will visit DU website to cheer me up.
Unhappiness has risen in the past decade
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
There's more misery in people's lives today than a decade ago — at least among those who will tell you their troubles.
So says a new study on life's negatives from the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, which conducts social science research for government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and private corporations.
The researchers surveyed 1,340 people about negative life events and found that the 2004 respondents had more troubles than those who were surveyed in 1991, the last time the study was done.
"The anticipation would have been that problems would have been down," says Tom Smith, the study's author. He says good economic years during the '90s would have brought an expectation of fewer problems, not more.
Overall, the percentage who reported at least one significant negative life event increased from 88% to 92%. Most of the problems were related to increased incidents of illness and the inability to afford medical care; mounting bills; unemployment; and troubled romantic relationships.
On a more positive note, fewer of those surveyed reported having trouble with crime or the law.
The University of Chicago report is part of a larger study known as the larger General Social Survey, which is supported by the National Science Foundation and financed through grants. It includes in-person interviews with more than 2,800 randomly chosen people 18 and older.
Those questioned about their negative life events were asked about 60 specific problems, and they could each list up to two additional problems. By weighting each problem and using a formula, Smith says, the troubles could be compared.
Some of the problems outlined in the study were more complicated than just a single bad event. For instance, the inability to afford health care rose from 7% in 1991 to 11% in 2004. Those who said they lacked health insurance increased from 12% to 18%. On the romantic front, the percentage who reported breaking up with a steady partner doubled from 4% to 8%.
But people shouldn't despair even if there is trouble around them. Bad experiences don't necessarily make people unhappy, says Jonathan Haidt, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of the new book The Happiness Hypothesis.
"Happiness has a very weak relation to the events in our lives," Haidt says. "Your happiness level is determined mostly by the structure in your brain — not by whether good or bad things happen to you. Negative events hurt or feel bad, but they are not usually as bad as we think and don't last as long as we think."
Happiness is an individual thing, he says, like a thermostat in our brains with a baseline that's predetermined by genetics. "We all move around, up or down, around our set point" depending on life events, he says. "The key to the psychology of happiness is to move to the upper range of your potential."
He advises a three-point check-up on the state of personal relationships, the work environment and control over daily life, because improving those areas will boost happiness.
Darling husband will be home in a month, however, and I'm in the midst of some major Room Rescues. He's been living in a glorified broom closet with a bunkbed and a concrete floor for nearly a year and I need to have a beautiful environment for him to come home to. ("I can do anything for 15 minutes")
They found my mother-in-law!
I love flylady too. I recommend her to everyone who asks about how to organize.
I hated going to the homes of the hoarders, I would have to bathe in benadryl afterwards and the stench was god awful nasty. They were usually quite manipulative as far as promises went when working with them to get rid of at least the trash.
There was an Animal Precinct episode where the lady hoarded cats and she had over 250 in her small house. I was gagging at the thought of the smell. I know it had to permeate the neighbors home.
I did succeed in canceling all my magazine subscriptions shortly after discovering the internet – but I have electronics and tools stashed everywhere. I have stereo receivers that would qualify as antiques. I have reel to reel tape decks that I am told can not be repaired – but I keep hoping for a miracle. CDs have helped with the paper clutter – papers scanned and saved to disk, but I still have three file drawers full and papers stacked awaiting another file cabinet. I have several hundred books. The bookcases are crammed full with books squeezed in on top of books and more lying around the apartment. My desk in also crammed with “stuff” I may someday need. I am the only one who can find anything in it and I have trouble at times.
I did clean out a closet by taking a load of clothes to the DAV thrift store. That was no problem for me because it was clothing I had before losing 50 pounds.
wow. Is the relative OK now or the same in a new place?
Good luck FLYing!
Yep :D
"My sister and dear friend are both FLYing now as well :)"
Add me to that list. ;)
This isn't a "condition." It's a vice. It's a variation on avarice; behavior that reflects a lack of trust in the providence of God.
Then you've never heard of the Collyer brothers, two Brooklyn brothers who shared the hoarding obsession, back in the 1940s. One was in a wheelchair, and the other did everything for his brother. A pile of junk collapsed on the mobile brother, and the other starved to death upstairs.
"He advises a three-point check-up on the state of personal relationships, the work environment and control over daily life, because improving those areas will boost happiness."
I can attest to that! Told the huz to "shape up or ship out" a few years back (he shaped up), quit working for anyone but myself five years ago, and found Free Republic! :)
As for the clutter, I can only take so much. When I start feeling overwhelmed, it's time to clean closets, etc.
OMG. That is just too funny. We had the HVAC guy tell us a story once about this woman who had the paths carved out in the house. Dogs were running around. Just gross. Unreal.
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