MemeMachineGo!

The Squalor Survivors website offers this disturbing definition of levels :

1. First degree squalor
   

   You are getting behind in tasks that you would normally manage, like laundry and dishes. You are not the tidy person you once were. Little piles are starting to emerge and your disorganization is starting to affect your life and inconvenience you. Things are just starting to get out of hand and become unmanageable. A sign of first degree squalor might be that you are embarrassed for other people to see your mess…but you would still let them in the house.



2. Second degree squalor
   

   Now things are really starting to get out of hand. Signs that you have reached second degree would include losing the use of normal household items like your bed, table, television or telephone, because the piles have expanded to cover the items up. You start to develop new methods of moving around your house, as normal movement is impeded by your piles of stuff. You might start making excuses to discourage people from entering your house.



3. Third degree squalor
   

   At this stage, you have all the above, plus you have rotting food and animal faeces and/or urine in the house, and this is the rule not the exception. You cannot cope with the growing mess. Essential household repairs may not be done, because you are too afraid to let a tradesperson see your house. Just the thought of someone seeing your mess causes you great stress.



4. Fourth degree squalor
   

   At fourth degree squalor, you have all of the above, plus you have human faeces and/or urine in your house that is not in the toilet.

The son of an Ebay addict has posted detailed pictures of a house at second degree squalor .

A professional organizer’s article on obsessive compulsize hoarding :

Although hoarding behavior may manifest in people suffering from psychosis, brain damage, or dementia, most severe hoarding appears to be a subtype of OCD and is usually coupled with other OCD behavior such as compulsive counting, hand washing, checking (making sure the stove is off), and organizing (never mind!)

Studies carried out by an expert in the field, Randy Frost, Ph.D., and a National Institute of Mental Health survey, both estimate that between 2 and 3 percent of the population suffers from OCD—creating around $8 billion annually in social and economic losses, with about 15 percent to 30 percent of those OCD sufferers experiencing hoarding as their primary symptom.

“OCD hoarding is an extremely confounding disorder, difficult to treat, and in severe cases life threatening,” explains Dr. Gillette, who has worked with the elderly for more than 25 years. “Outdated food spoils, accumulated food and feces breed health problems, little critters move in, and stacked newspapers and magazines become fire hazards.”

Indeed, a friend’s mother’s house which was crammed from basement to attic with garbage, burned to the ground last year.

In one study of children who suffered from OCD, 20 to 70 percent of first-degree relatives also exhibited significant signs of OCD. It is now widely believed that hoarding, like other OCDs, has a strong genetic component and often runs in families.

[…] “Whereas most people with OCD are aware that their behavior is out of control, OCD hoarders usually lack that insight or don’t think that it’s that unusual,” says Dr. Saxena.

“Inevitably it’s a family member or friend who brings them in for therapy, and they’re unusually difficult to treat.”

As hoarders age, they face an escalating series of stress factors—loss of control over children, retirement, death of a spouse, impending illnesses, diminished ability to care for themselves, etc., and hoarding is the imaginary line of defense in the face of inevitable loss of control.

[…]

The first line of medications to combat OCDs and OCD hoarding is serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SRIs, such as Paxil and Zoloft, commonly used as antidepressants. “For some unknown reason, hoarders often don’t respond to SRIs, which tells us this may be a unique neurological subtype,” explains Dr. Saxena, heading a three-year UCLA study. “There’s a likelihood that OCD hoarders exhibit unique patterns of brain abnormalities, different from those of other OCDs, which will enable us to direct our research into other drugs.”

And syllogomania is a fancy word for “hoarding rubbish.”

I feel greatly inspired to finish unpacking, and to get rid of some old stuff.