Apr 13, 2006
My brother and I received a call on Sunday March, 26th that they found our Mother
dead in her home. AND MY MOM WAS A NURSE! No one knew, the people at work
would say she would show up to work clean, she didn’t stink and her hair and makeup were always done.
8/31/06:
My mom was a nurse and before my grandma died recently she visited her 3 times
a week, and she visits other “little old ladies” (this is cute since Mom is 71), makes
music tapes for people, buys them things, and hands out candy to everyone she
meets. (Though her level of interest and involvement in me or my life is not nearly so high, I might add.
I notice the same tendency in myself. I can make order out of chaos in any situation, but I tend to not be able to do it for myself nearly so well. I don’t know if that’s nature or nurture.
6/13/06
I’m not sure education has anything to do with it-In the case of our mom I think it is more of a need to be needed and to have a “role”, along that darn compulsion to
AVOID things.
Apr 18, 2006
While my family weren’t nurses, they sure tried to take care of too many people . It’s now hard for me to find the balance between being a stooge for someone or just being a good neighbor or friend.
5/17/2006
My mom has a huge need to be needed. So much so that she neglected us for
others when we were kids. I think she likes being the center of attention and feeling
important.
2/8/2008
My wife is a nurse and her mother was a nurse! Both hoarders.
Nov 1, 2006
My mom is a nurse too! How weird!
Mar 26, 2006
I agree that my mom is MOST like the woman in the Paula Zahn -Now ( divorced
nurse with mostly grown children who piles up thrift-store purchased books, videos
and holiday supplies)
2/ 20/ 2008
I want to let Tracy know that I understand. My mother—a nurse –also died squalor,
at the age of 61.
12/8/2006
I remember as a kid, a neighbor down the street was a hoarder. She was our school
nurse – an extremely nice woman.
Subject: [COH] New Story Sent In, 10/31/06-Daughter
I too, suffer from panic anxiety when my doorbell rings, but my house doesn’t look
like that. I have wanted to help her for years and understand it. I feel like if we did
an intervention she would end up in the Looney Bin. Most people who don’t know
her personally would not believe that my mother has been a nurse for over 40
years.
Apr 18, 2006
I have noticed that too about the number of nurses who have this and always
wondered if anyone else picked up on that. Maybe the Nurses Assn. of America
should get some info. on this. Perhaps it has something to do with the caretaker
role, and when the patient gets better their role/ID entity is over, the are no longer needed…and things ALWAYS need you?
My mom is not a nurse, but has been taking care of elderly people her whole life.
Jan 24, 2008
My mom was a candy stripper and nursing assistant before she had kids. She often
talks about how she wishes she had gotten her nursing degree. She also fancies
herself an amateur therapist. She’s always taking on the “hard luck” people at work,
dropping EVERYTHING to listen to their problems, lending them money, letting them
call her at all hours for a sympathetic ear, etc.
Yet, she has almost no real friends.
11/19/2006
My mother’s behavior has been getting worse with each passing year; she’s combative, hostile and bitter. She rarely says anything positive. She worked as a registered nurse most of her life
1/ 28/ 2008
My MIL, father, and grandmother…big hoarders…ALL of them partially completed
nursing school. They later made it their mission to care for elderly relatives to the
detriment of their own families.
Nov 1, 2006
I’m amazed at the NUMBER of nurses who have this hoarding/filth problem! Other
jobs are probably as demanding as nursing….what’s the deal?!
Nurses (yes, my Mom is a nurse) take care of people and make the other people’s
lives better and then come home to live in a garbage dump…shaking head and
sighing [My mom didn’t have a filth problem due to the fact that she was a germaphobe or whatever people are called that like to keep the germs/yuck off stuff–but she has TOO much stuff!!!]
5/17/06
My mom works in this profession. She also is a “Visiting Angel” which is a caregiver
group she works for taking care of senior citizens.
Before that, she was a teacher. Taking care of people from one extreme age to
another. I would be interested in how this all plays into the hoarding brain.
9/18/06
I’m unsure of the relevance, but my mother was an RN for 25 years.
8/26/06
My mom is a NURSE!!!!
8/31/06:
My mom was a nurse, and she visits other “little old ladies”, makes music tapes for
people, buys them things, and hands out candy to everyone she meets. (Though
her level of interest and involvement in me or my life is not nearly so high, I might
add.
8/30/2008
My Aunt, the worst hoarder in the family, IS an LPN.
Apr 18, 2006
Something else occurs to me as I read posts here and at Friends Of Hoarders: It
seems that an awful lot of the hoarders are nurses. Has anyone else noticed that?
My mom, too, was once a nurse. She still considers herself one and tries to counsel everyone around her on health
issues.
9/9/07
RE: Channel 4 Albuquerque
I nearly passed out when I saw on the news what they entitled “FILTHY HOUSE” I
swear you guys this was my mothers house (it wasn’t but looked like it could have
been) Then while showing pictures of the house…they are saying AND YOU WON’T
BELIEVE WHO LIVES THERE?
It was a 51 year old nurse. She said she just got completely overwhelmed and lost
total control.
12/20/2006
My mom is not always punctual, but not consistently late, and very reliable for important stuff (she’s a nurse, so I guess it’s been trained into her).
11/6/2006
My mom is real busy besides the mess. She is a full time nurse and going to school to get her Bachelors degree. She has always had excuses even when she has no other extra-responsibilities.
3/18/2008
I think in my mom’s case, it also has to do with her avoiding her own life and responsibilities. If she’s out of state “taking care of” her mother, then she doesn’t have to deal with her job or her mess, or her bills.
10/13/06
Recap of Dr. Keith Ablow Show on Hoarding, “Inside The Lives of Women Who
Hoard”
“Kathleen is a nurse and mother of three children who can’t bear to throw anything
away….”
10/21/04
Interview with owner of DisasterMasters, cleaning service in NY:Who is most likely to be a compulsive hoarder?
Alford says that through his work he has noticed that “the people who suffer the
most from compulsive hoarding are people in the health care industry”. Health care worker, nurses, social workers, and even psychiatrists are among his clients. He says this is because some health care workers are so focused on helping others that they never get around to learning how to take care of themselves.
The second largest group of compulsive hoarders consists of schoolteachers and professors, says Alford.
3/8/2008
The hoarder I know was a nurse too, and she’s caring and giving, in fact so very
caring, sometimes it’s over the top because people feel obligated due to her insistence.
6/14/06
About all these patterns of behavior we observe: Some of them are probably quite real, can are probably tide in to certain biochemical predispositions, but some of them are probably not really patterns at all.One of the hardest things about being a scientist or researcher, is that the human brain is predisposed to identify patterns, whether or not they are actually there. A good scientist has to work very hard to ensure that his/her biases for particular patterns do not influence experiments or conclusions, and we’re not always successful at that. When you hear about some crazy scientist spending a lot of money proving something that is “obvious”, what you are really seeing is someone who is being honest and trying to make sure that our intuitions are not misleading us, because our intuitions often do exactly that.