packrat syndrome??

[hinaman]

I am worried about my wife; since a horrible fight with our condo board(still ongoing) some eccentricities have become much worse; she was always a bit of a 'packrat' but now it's escalated. The top floor of our condo is quite literally filled within several inches of the ceiling with boxes, dolls and everything else imaginable. She has completely blocked all my bookcases with knick-knacks, pictures, etc  ad nauseam. Our garage is again almost completely filled with junk. Clothes closets are so jammed it's impossible to get anything in or out. Every week we throw away food because she fills the refrigerator with way more food than anyone can eat, so a lot of it spoils

On top of that that she is sleeping almost all the time; she'll go to bed around 11, stay up unil 5 or 6AM, then eventually fall asleep (usually with 3 ambiens) and sleep till 6:30 PM the next day

Her behavior is getting more irrational in other way;s we attended a condo board meeting tonite and she rambled on, often making sense, but sometimes making very little sense, dwelling on irrelevant issues, complaining about her health to the board, cutting people off, not letting anyone speak etc.etc.

Then we come home and she goes to bed for another 18 hours or so...

Can anyone make any suggestions?? Please...

[hinaman]

Interesting -- didn't know about the Rogers book; I'll get it right away, thanks

[soldy]

No problem.Follow Dr.Sherry A.Rogers,M.D. protocol in her book:DETOXIFY OR DIE
ISBN 1-887202-04-8.You have to be very patient.It takes time.But it works

[hinaman]

Thanks very much for the suggestion; since we own our condo there's no chance of being evicted , but certainly none of this is going to help our living situation. From my meagre understanding of psychiatric disorders it doesn't SEEM that schizophrenia is involved -- no hearing of voices e.g., but I agree it might well be some form of mania and bipolar disorder. In fact our family physician (who also specializes in sleep disorders) has suggested exactly that. I will TRY to get her to see a pschiatrist; it will be difficult but not, I think, impossible.

Now I may have overstated the case regarding her rationality; in a non-stressful situation, such as talking to me, our daughter, good friends etc she is fairly rational and reasonable. But when stress enters the picture she loses it, badly.

The idea of involving Adult Protective Services is interesting, though I'm going to have to be EXTREMELY careful about how that might affect my relationship with her and our daughter.("tattling" on her is how it might be seen...in the BEST case scenario)

Anyway I'll weigh your suggestion and thanks again

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes I have a friend in this exact same position. He was almost evicted and before he was, Adult Protective Services had him hospitalized and then required him to clean up his apartment (then again he lived in public housing). But he doesn't just have ocd. He also has schizotypical personality disorder. That is rare but schizophrenia or schizoaffective is not. There could easily be two issues going on, ocd and some form of psychotic disorder. And perhaps considering the way she is speaking, bipolar (especially mania as well and depression during the extended sleeping episodes) but two words sum it up: get help. She needs to see a psychiatrist immediately. She has cut herself off from the real world and considering what she has accumulated in the way of objects this has apparently gone on for a while. Please have her see a psychiatrist and approach it in a positive and constructive manner as if it will help her life and her recovery, which it will. Once she is rational the issue of compulsively hoarding objects can be approached at that point.