OCD Hoarding, Chronic Depression + Stroke
 

I have recently moved in with my 58 YO mother who has had a stroke and is unable to take care of herself completely (though she would argue otherwise). My mother has OCD Hoarding but it has gone undiagnosed as yet since she is lying to her doctors about it. I can easily recognize it. She obsessively buys things from QVC and Infomercials, rarely opens them except to get the 'receipt' out for filing. She has squandered her entire retirement fund by doing this in the last 5 years. She even has the body of her old cat, burried in a large pot with a plant. I have started purging the house and for the most part she allows me to throw some things out (I am "donating" it all) but I come across many things she simply won't tolerate me touching at all. She fabricates stories about why the item is important.. So-and-so gave it to her for example. These are mostly lies as I can SEE the receipt paid for with her own credit card. I avoided calling her out on these little lies at first, but then I just got tired of hearing it and told her I knew she was lying. At that point, she became defensive (obviously!) and told me that I needed to help her in a more positive way than I was. I have now resorted to purging only when she is either sleeping, or out to her doctor's for an appointment.

Does anyone have any advice for this situation at all?

Welcome to Neuro Talk, sorry about why you found us but am glad you did. You will find many helpful and kind people here, jump into the forums and post questions and answer too, enjoy explore and i shall post a couple links down below, one for main index of all forums and other for the OCD forum, good luck with your mother. and again welcome to NT:Wave-Hello:



here is a link to the OCD Forum, http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum50.html



follow this one to the main forum index

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/index.php

if you look at the bottom of the page you will find some forums you can post and ask questions there to hopefully get some advice. and the emotional support one is nice too

Hi and welcome to NeuroTalk!

Hi and welcome to NeuroTalk. I'm sorry to hear about your mom but I think it is wonderful that you moved in with her. She's lucky to have you!

This forum has wonderful people who are very supportive and I see that Frank has given you a couple of links to check out.

I hope things get easier for you. Good luck:)



http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...elcomechat.jpg

sorry to hear about your mom ... i hope all goes well with you there to help her ... check out the links frank listed above and then surf around and join in ... there's lots of friendly, supportive, helpful people here ... quite a few of us are caregivers just as you are... if you need any help just ask ... again .. welcome to NT

Thanks for the welcome :)
I'll check out the links and have a look around. I have my own problems (thanks, gene pool lol) but I mostly need help dealing with my mother's issues since it is unfamiliar territory to me.

well do not hesitate to ask all the questions you need to, these forums are fill with some really caring people

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene :hug: