My grandma has compulsive hoarding disorder, Alzheimer’s, and possibly bipolar disorder. Her house is filled with junk… on the dining room table, in the oven and microwave, in the staircase, and just in piles everywhere throughout the house. She saves everything from clothes to old tissues to the plastic holders that earrings come on to old food. She is also a bit of an animal hoarder, although since she lives in the country, it hasn’t been that big of a problem. She has two dogs and about 11 cats. The situation is bad, basically.

We had a big storm a couple of weeks ago, and they sustained a large amount of damage to one of their barns, so they had to call their landlords to come assess the damage. While the landlords were there, they walked into the house and saw what was going on. Shortly after, my grandparents received a letter from them saying that they need to be moved out of the house by September 15th, 2009. (My grandma thinks it’s because they were jealous of all of the things that she had).

My grandma has made it clear that she doesn’t plan to get rid of any of her things or any of her animals. However, my grandparents can’t bring all of her stuff because they can only afford a small house, and obviously they can’t bring all of the animals either. My grandpa is afraid that if they throw away her things, she will kill herself. She has said repeatedly that all she wants to do is die anyway. I’ve heard that sudden changes in routine can really upset people with compulsive hoarding disorder too because they put all of their worth and feelings into their stuff. I was just wondering if anyone else has been in this situation, and how they helped their loved one through it. My whole family is at a loss about how to deal with everything.
xoxo- Sorry I don’t know how to directly reply to you. My grandma also denies that there is a problem. Our grandparents sound a lot alike. She saves a lot of those same things. Since she also has other mental disorders, she doesn’t really comprehend that there would be a problem with bringing all of her stuff. She thinks that we should just pack it all up and move it to the new house. She also watches my grandpa and uncle like a hawk so that she can make sure that they aren’t throwing anything away. We are trying to get something arranged so that my uncle can take her to visit her relatives for awhile and then while she is gone, we can throw away a lot of stuff. Even with that plan, we are afraid that she will get really, really upset. Putting her on the suicide watch list is a good idea though.