This is so sad... and so gross

[MissMillie]

Emmy winner found dead, buried in debris inside home

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/emmy-winner-found-dead-buried-in-debris-inside-home/ar-BB1fdksQ?ocid=U483DHP

According to reports, Evelyn's sister, Ellen Brown, had been maintaining the messy apartment while the search was on for the talented designer, who'd previously worked on "Taxi," "Orange is the New Black," "Billions" and more. Eventually, Ellen hired a cleaning crew to help her tidy up the place, which the New York Daily News described as "trash-strewn."

It was there, under "an avalanche of garbage," that the 66-year-old was found face up, the Daily News said.

"This is just devastating," Ellen said. "She had a full life. She was so extraordinarily talented. She was a brilliant mind … I don't want my sister to be remembered like that, like the way she was found."

Pictures from the home show that Evelyn was a serous hoarder, as trash and filth overflowed from the home. Multiple media outlets reported a stench that wafted through the air.

****************************************************************

Mental health benefits NEED to be part of any health care reform

[kimbutgar]

1. I helped clear out a hoarders home last December and I could easily see this happening to

Someone. The items in the woman’s home was taller than me and we had to make a path just to get to the back of the unit. An avalanche of junk could have seriously hurt and result in a persons death.

[Archae]

7. My neighbor at the north end of my building died, he was a garbage hoarder.

And he had three dogs too.

It took a couple weeks to clean out and completely renovate his place, (they had to tear out the walls and replace the drywall,) and three dumpsters to haul away all the trash. (Including two room's worth of ruined carpeting, and kitchen linoleum.)

My neighbor, (nice guy, but I didn't like going into his apartment,) was somewhat overweight and he died of a heart attack, in his kitchen.

[Demovictory9]

11. that show "Hoarders" has become almost unwatchable ... the dirty hoarders...ugh.

there are two kinds... "collectors"...house isn't so dirty and "hoarders, buried alive" that basically dump their garbage where they stand. Recent show, house had so many roaches that they were walking up the legs of the bug terminator guys, they didn't seem to mind. UGH.

[kimbutgar]

14. I used to watch that show and stopped watching it

Little did I know that I would end up doing a job like that in my life. It was gross and fascinating at the same time. As we moved things we found so many brand new items in crushed boxes. I ended up getting a brand new laptop that was still in the box, and some other good stuff, new DVD players, manicure set and other stuff I passed on to family. The lady used to buy two of everything on QVC. Luckily I did not encounter any rodents but a lot of spiders. One night I came home and combed my hair and a dead spider dropped into my sink. It’s a good thing I am not freaked out by spiders.

[Demovictory9]

15. on the show, most are in dire financial straights from the nonstop buying of ... STUFF

[llmart]

23. That show of course has to show the worst of the worst when it comes to hoarders.

So, yes, it is unwatchable to me also. However, I think it does a disservice to the public awareness of hoarding as a mental disorder because there are plenty of hoarders out there that will watch that show and say, "See, I'm not anything like THAT." They're still hoarders and mentally unbalanced. I was married to a guy who didn't exhibit the worst of his hoarding when he was younger, but with each passing decade he got worse. Anyone who lives with a hoarder can tell you that they just do not see it as a problem and almost always will not get professional counseling either.

Just saying we need better mental health care options in this country is not the answer. As someone else on here commented, hoarders are some of the most difficult people to treat or even get to a place where they'll acknowledge there's something wrong with their behavior.

I have two grown children and they have taken pictures of their father's apartment and shown them to me, and on the one hand I feel vindicated because so many of my friends or relatives couldn't quite understand why I left him and never really believed that he was "that bad". When I show them the pictures they say, "Man, something is truly wrong with him." He has a rationalization for everything he buys or brings into the place. No one noticed it because while I was still with him I kept it under control, but it was emotionally and physically exhausting keeping up on getting rid of the crap he brought into my house. He also hoards ammunition and guns. Needless to say, my kids are not looking forward to cleaning out that place when he croaks.

[madaboutharry]

2. It is a sad story.

Poor woman.

[Caliman73]

3. Not only benefits, but discussion about the realities of mental health struggles.

There are a lot of people out there who struggle every day with mental health challenges, who are on the surface, functioning and productive. Hoarding Behavior is a serious condition, that is among the most difficult to treat. People's identities and sense of self are wrapped up in the accumulation of objects. They often cut off ties to others to avoid detection of their condition. Some function others do not do too well.

We tend to use mental illness as a way to define and separate people's behaviors from, "the rest of us normal people" but the reality is that anyone is susceptible to struggles and most of us know someone who struggles with chronic mental illness.

There has to be a more compassionate and comprehensive approach to mental health in this country.

[multigraincracker]

6. +1,000

[nolabear]

13. Absolutely.

[spinbaby]

4. It's unfortunately common

And sad. My mother in-law was a hoarder. She seemed to have a fear of throwing anything out and had a QVC habit as well as a Dollar Store habit. It was horrible. Once we had to go into the basement to clear space for a plumber to come in. Among other things, she had a box of phone bills from her mother that dated to the 60s.

[Demovictory9]

12. The Hoarders TV show... many have the Thrift shop habit. Nothing wrong with going to thrift shop

but for the hoarder it becomes an excuse to acquire more and more ("this doo-dad only cost $3)

[smirkymonkey]

5. I am so sorry for this poor woman and her sister.

How could nobody have smelled a dead body? It sounds like she lived in an apartment building. It's hard to believe that people have been in and out of there over the months and didn't notice a stench. Very tragic.

[Meowmee]

9. Yes my thoughts as well

How could it take so long to find her. Sad story.

[Nay]

17. If you ever smell the inside of a garbage hoarder's house, you will understand

why you wouldn't be able to smell a decomposing body.

[XanaDUer2]

8. Poor woman nt

[hunter]

10. My grandmother was a hoarder.

She kept every light bulb she'd ever bought, marking on the package the day she bought it and the day it burned out.

She also kept Styrofoam Big Mac boxes. Some she hid cash in, some half eaten Big Macs. In all, thousands of dollars. They boxes all had to be sorted through. Mummified Big Macs or Money!

Hoarding wasn't my grandmother's only issue. The berserker was strong in her. A few neighbors were terrified of her, balanced by neighbors who adored her and would buy her cigarettes whenever she was too paranoid to leave her house.

When my grandma had to be removed from her home by court order as a danger to herself and others she fought off the police and paramedics for many hours. Strapped to a gurney on the way to the ambulance she was still cussing up a storm and trying to bite the paramedics.

If she hadn't been a little old white lady retiree homeowner in a not-so-bad neighborhood I suspect the cops would have simply shot her.

Maybe the scariest thing in the aftermath was that my mom had removed all the guns she could find from my grandma's house years before. But clearing out the house my mom found another gun. It's likely my grandma had simply forgotten where she'd hidden it. Or maybe her better Wild West Berserker self had prevailed and she'd decided not to shoot anyone.

I'm a quarter my crazy grandma.

Modern meds are helpful.

[Hekate]

18. Gods bless modern meds

that’s quite a story

[Stuart G]

16. I once met a newpaper horder in the mid 80s.

...The man's son asked me to clean out his dad's apartment after he had died...The son was a fellow teacher at the school that I worked at for many years. We went into the dining room and newspapers were piled into stacks that were 4 or 5 feet tall. His dad had saved every newspaper since he arrived from Poland after the WWII, until then. 3 kinds of newspapers...2 Chicago papers and NY Times...all of them. Yes the stacks were all over the dining room. All around the dining room table. and against the walls. We collected as many as we could, then put them in plastic garbage bags...and put them in a garbage truck...There was another, but her living room was so full of stuff, that I couldn't describe it.
....Yes, this is a sad story, but it is what it is. And this is more common than people think...Tens of thousands of horders, collectors, people who store old stuff, and so on....Oh, would you like some old Mad Magazines from the 50s & 60s that I have collected???

..........just asking...you know...

[KT2000]

19. whole country needs mental health care access

It is so difficult to obtain care. Insurance is limited and if there is no insurance, too bad unless there is an organization that will help. The changes made to the mental health system were an attempt to solve problems of warehousing people and keeping them on drugs and incapacitated. We need more fixes and soon.

A country that freely arms its citizens - mentally ill or not - we all need to have a more peaceful society that may be achieved through better mental health care.

As it is now, a severely ill person must meet many legal criteria before help is enforced. Care for those without funds is really moving them through the system as quickly as possible. For those who cannot take care of themselves, the street becomes home until they harm someone. Living on the streets is not considered "harm to self."

[3auld6phart]

20. Sad..

We had a hoarder in our wee city that died under a pile of old
News papers and other trash.

[BobTheSubgenius]

21. I watched that Hoarders show once, and I found it to be sleazy and voyeuristic.

Couldn't watch it.

[haele]

22. It's not only a mental problem, it can also be physical.

Being currently mobility challenged and also being a "caretaker" for three cats, two young children and a spouse with seizures, the trash level can quickly become overwhelming for all involved.

It's amazing how between dirty dishes, deliveries, and waste, along with toys, dirty (and clean but not put away)clothes, kids crafts, and mail, within a week spouse and I contemplate a flame-thrower to deal with the mess that looks just a few more cats and newspapers from a Horder nest. The only thing stopping us is that we own the house outright, something one doesn't find in San Diego very often.

A lot of the problem is a normal distribution of chores, something the nine and five year olds are adamantly apposed to participating in. When I was healthy, that wasn't a problem, as I would be figuratively walking the kids through their chores while we doing our own (when Laz has a good day, he can get a lot done.)
But now that I can't move very much and don't have much strength, it's like "yay, Grandma can't help with our chores, so we can do more important stuff to waste time." Neither cajoling, bribes, punishments, or yelling work. And hiring help is F'ing expensive.

If I lived on my own, I would swallow my pride and hire help to come in for a few hours once a week... but that money is going to feed and maintain kids and a disabled spouse.

Sigh.

Haele