Hey everyone!
I'm new to the forum, I was on SS for a little while... but i've been away for ages!
I'm Laura, i'm 22 and I live in England. I live alone in my own flat with 2 adorable kitties!
Here's a bit of my story... I'll try to keep it brief! (don't want anyone falling asleep on keyboards)
I've lived alone for 2 years, every room of my flat was in 3rd degree... I had nobody in my house. I was too afraid to answer the door. I barely went out, only ever to buy catfood!
I've had some really quite serious mental health problems all my life, which often ended up in psychiatric hospital admissions... 6 months ago I made the biggest, hardest most distressing decision of my life.
I have always struggled with anorexia... 6 months ago it got to a stage where if I didn't go into hospital, i'd of got seriously ill... I was struggling with depression and other associated things... I'd been trying to struggle on alone for too long. I didn't tell people about my problems and nobody knew about my flat. I'd been trying to hide my problems plus fight to try to sort out my squalor alone... Finally something broke.
I realised I needed help. Before I left for hospital, I wrote a long letter to my housing association, it's supported housing and I have a good support worker here.
Long story short'ish! - I've spent a whole 6 months sectioned in psych hospital! While I was there, my cats were shipped over to live with my Mum for a while and the cleaning of the house began!
I spent those 6 months worried sick about my house... I hated the thought of people seeing it, being in there, looking threw my things...
A month ago I recieved a phonecall to tell me that the cleaning team had gone in... The same day, I had another phonecall... It went like this...
Support Worker: "the house is done"
Me: "What... DONE?!"
Support worker: "Yes, done"
Me: "Done as in DONE?!?! As in FINISHED?!!?!?!!"
Support worker: "YES!!!"
The feeling of relief was incredible... I couldn't believe it. It only took them a day!
When I finally got home to see how it was I was so shocked I couldn't speak, breathe, anything... The flat looked 10x bigger! They cleaned the carpets, cleared every last single bit of trash, etc. The only things they didn't do anything with are my personal things.
I've now been discharged from the hospital, I have my kitties back home where they belong with me and i'm starting to finish what they started.
I have box MOUNTAINS!!! they boxed up all the items they couldn't do anything with, so that I could sort them out. I have about 10 rubbish bags of laundry to do and god knows how many boxes to sort out and rehome! Once that is all done everything just needs a really good clean and dusting... The cleaners did a good job and it's loads better than it was but it's by no means perfect. It really needs a good scrubbing! Then I have some repairs to get done.
Argh! I was supposed to be keeping this brief but it's ended up rather long... I hope nobody is asleep on their keyboads!
I haven't had the chance to talk to anyone about this that knows anything about living in squalor and the challenges that go with it... I'm happy I had the chance to get some of this stuff out in the open where I know I won't be judged!
I look foward to getting to know you all!
Take care.
