What does the bible teach about hoarding?

[joyusdays]

My mom is a hoarder and a christian. My dad is tired of not being able to eat at the kitchen table, sit on his couch, and now she wants to take over his bedroom. She responds well to things of the Lord. What can we say or do to encourage her, and to get my dad's space back?

 

[SoldierOfSoul]

She needs to start cleaning! she needs to start letting things go that she is attached to, start off with removing things that don't cause much anxiety but slowly and surely start getting rid of stuff and show her that she can live with the anxiety that this will produce.

She needs to become "unattached" from these "things", you could show her a few bible verses that speak of materialism to help her overcome the anxiety she will have to deal with.

But most important is to show her that she can overcome the anxiety if she will not give in to the compulsion (which is to hoard), she must force herself to not do these activities and then let the anxiety come as it will but just let it come and try not to think about it, just ignore it and let it pass.

Eventually the anxiety will start to subside and it will become bearable. If she can do this a few times she will show herself that it is possible not to hoard and also that its possible not to give in to fear and anxiety.

If she feels like she will be incomplete if she stops hoarding or whatever is motivating this obsession tell her that it is a lie of the disorder and the enemy and that she can only find her true identity completely in Christ and His love for her.

 

[canamer]

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[joyusdays]

If I had to hedge a bet I would say that the chances of you being able to change her mind on this are slim-to-none. I say this from having to deal with the experience of my own Grandma. You have to remember that their hoarding is essentially like our OCD. It doesn't make sense and yet how many times a day do we get stuck in our OCD and fall for our fears? So it is the same with them.

My Grandma filled up a 3 bedroom townhouse (floor to ceiling in many of the rooms) + the basement with junk. There literally was nowhere to sit down and you had to follow 'trails' everywhere. This went on for years. She'd give away a bag of junk and replace it with 10 more bags.

Within the last 10 years the family decided to get serious with her and said that a bunch of her stuff had to go. We threatened to call the fire station and report her house as a fire hazard (remember somebody lived in the other side with it being a townhouse). She initially allowed access and we got rid of probably 4 or 5 dumpsters worth of stuff but then she dug her heels in and wouldn't let us get rid of any more stuff. Sadly, in the end it would seem as if her junk caused her death. A few years ago she slipped (presumably on some junk) in her living room and fell backwards and hit her head on a hutch nearby and died.

It wasn't 'til then that the family could come in and do a major clean-up and deal with the problem 100%. I don't know how many dumpsters worth of junk they took out. Maybe 10. Who knows. But, the family had to go through of that stuff before they could even freshen the house up (paint, replace carpet, etc) so that they could sell it.

If the family was at fault at all it would be that they should've dealt with the problem long before it got that bad. But, people can be strong-willed and it can be a very difficult situation to work with. It's not as easy as saying get rid of your junk. Just as it's not as easy as telling me to stop checking that the door is locked. It's all mental..... it's hard to deal with.

I would pray about it and then do what you can to work with her in this area. Hopefully, you'll have better success than what we had with my Grandma.

Thank you for sharing. She lives with my dad and my dad wants his space back...so we are insisting on "clutter free zones" and we set down a rule that if those spaces get cluttered, they will be thrown out. She is allowed to hoard in her room, if she chooses to bury herself alive, but we put our foot down so that she is not allowed to hoard in my dads' room, the kitchen counters, the living room/couch, and the tubs. She already has a storage unit that's going to cost us an arm and a leg to go through.

 

[bliz5]

Th Bibleis silent on the subiect.

Your mother has an illness, obssesive compulsive disorder, and she need some professional help. She needs counseling and possibly medication. This not a matter than can be fixed by you and your dad setting up rules. She cannot stop this by herself.

 

[joyusdays]

Th Bibleis silent on the subiect.

Your mother has an illness, obssesive compulsive disorder, and she need some professional help. She needs counseling and possibly medication. This not a matter than can be fixed by you and your dad setting up rules. She cannot stop this by herself.

What if she refuses help...and my dad wants his space back?

 

[VZ2011]

Hoarding, like the kind shown on tv, is a form of OCD.

All forms of OCD, including Extreme spiritual fearfulness (over blasphemy & going to hell) & doubting (even while you are pursing God, reading his word, and in prayer)and other racing negative fearful thoughts are the result of a vitamin deficiency which causes a chemical imbalance in the brain and is treatable with extreme daily doses of vitamines. If you or a loved one experience extreme spiritual fearfulness, Bi-Polar, manic depression, OCD or schizophrenia tendancies (paranoia, visual hallucinations, hearing voices), depression, insomnia, racing thoughts, panic attacks, anxiety, other mental distresses, do yourself a favor and reasearch depression, schizophrenia, OCD vitamin and orthomolecular therapy and the work of a canadian doctor named Abram Hoffer. Basically he developed a treatment (that truly WORKS) with Vitamines. It's a minimal cost to incur to invest in your physical and mental AND SPIRITUAL wellness. I am not peddling anyone's vitamines. You can get any brand at Walmart or a grocery store or a vitamine store on line. These Vitamin supplements have been a tremendous help to my relative and myself who continue to experience greater and greater healing each day that we continue with this vitamine therapy. Relief comes within the first couple of days and continues as you continue to take the vitamine supplements. You must take them for the rest of your life or risk a relapse.

1000 mg niacian daily (get a combination of flush-free and regular niacin) the regular will cause you to flush--(you will get red and hot but this means it is working--the longer it takes you to flush the more you needed it. the redness goes away in about 15 minutes. The flush-free niacin will not make you flush. If you start to feel nauceaous, lower the dosage or skip a day altogether with it, then take a "normal" dosage, like 100-500 mg. An extremely high dose like 1000-2000 is for when things get extremely uncontrollable and it should only be temporary. It's too much to take regularly. After a day or two you could start to feel naucious from that much, but it will jumpstart the seratonin in your brain to help you relax and control your thoughts, then you can lower it to 500.

2000-3000 mg Vitamine C take 1000 mg 3x a day

HTP5 - At least 100 mg daily

Vitamine B 8 - (inisitol) - 10-18g per day depending on severity of your OCD (it's alot but take it)

Vitamine B combo vitamine 2 or 3 per day (with B1, B6, B12)

Essential Omega Fats (with fish oil and flax) take 2-3 per day.

Results will be notable within a day or two, with the greatest results starting at around 6 weeks of taking these.

Swear off all junk food, all artificial sweetners, all refined white sugar products, all alcohol, eat GOOD NUTRITIOUS FOOD, fresh and frozen vegetables, fruits, unsweetned fruit juice, filtered water or spring water, cut down on caffeine. Going gluetin free is also good but it's not necessary for everyone.

Please research these things on line yourself as I am not allowed to post URLs on this site. I would have posted them if I could have.

Please, also understand that you must honor Jesus Christ and trust his shed blood and ressurection fully for salvation. Read the word daily and pray, and live according to biblical principals and this along with proper nutrition, will eliminate spiritual OCD and extreme spiritual fearfulness.