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Post by phoebepj on Oct 18, 2008 19:10:50 GMT -5
i think squalor is more common than we think. Alot of people hide well. I grew up in an immaculate home.... using a coaster for drinks etc.. i mean if you got a bit of dirt on the floor, it had to be cleaned right away. But i babysat for this lady whose house was at least a level 1... funny thing is, i didn't really notice or care that she had piles of stuff everywhere. But it opened my eyes that things werent always like my parents home. I think my mother is an organized hoarder/squalor'er... she has an attic full of stuff. Some stuff is the baby stuff, but she has craft stuff, and other items that are really of no use at this point since we are grown up. some stuff might have sentimental value though.
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Post by eagle on Oct 19, 2008 9:24:21 GMT -5
Quick question. You have to have a pet to be level 3 right? Cheers, skitter Skitter, I would consider non-pet feces/urnine that is ignored/tolerated to count in level 3 if the rotting food and other conditions exists and one does not have a pet. Take for example, the mice or rat infested house, or even a house in disrepair wherein other wild animals may come inside and create messes that are not dealt with. Birds, bats or squirrels in the attic, rats or racoons or possums in the basement come to mind. These things do happen and although none of us may want to admit we have ignored or tolerated such conditions, sometimes doing something about them is such an overwhelming task that it takes awhile before action pulls us out. I have had this very problem myself in the past and had no pets at the time. I know for sure it was a level 3 situation. As far as how common I think this is, I don't really know. It is so shame-loaded that squalor is about as taboo a condition as tuberculosis once was, or leprosy. Please don't be offended by the analogy. I am just pointing out that people with true squalor, as opposed to the occassionally messy home fear the same kinds of reactions from the public as the aforementioned. Diogenes Syndrome is a condition that is known to the medical profession and documents that squalor has, indeed been a known problem for ages. Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who live 400 years BC, and the condition is named after him because he was apparently the 'first' most radical case brought to mind when identifying this 'personality disorder'. There is a lot of literature out there on Diogenes Syndrome*, and much of it refers to it as a personality disorder of the elderly. I think that is a 'head in the sand' point of view. It suggests that those of us who started out this way at a much earlier age (and we are many) had some other condition. In any case, I have know a few young people who lived in squalor since I was very young. I did not grow up in it, as my home of origin was always very clean and orderly. But my best friend in high school lived in a home full of goat trails. I visited it once or twice, but she rarely took people to her house. I used to babysit in a level 4 home, for a relative. That was not fun at my age at the time and I had never seen the situation before. The person was my aunt and she had also grown up in a level 3 (minimum) household, so she probably knew nothing else. I have always had friends whose homes are at level 2, maybe not many of them, but always at least one or two who have told me about it or I have seen for myself. And I would venture a guess that other friends who never invite anyone over may have the same problem, but just don't talk about it. * Some links to Diogenes Syndrome: The Doctor Weighs InDiogenes Syndrome: Living in Extreme Squalor written by a nurseIrish Psychiatrist Vol 6 Issue 1 Feb/Mar 2005(Go to page 13 for the article)Diogenes Syndrome (power point presentation by an MD at Cleveland Clinic)And yet another, which brings in other terms for this conditionMore literature exists in Australia (severe domestic squalor) and other countries, too numerous to list. The unwelcome aspect of all of these articles is that they indicate some form of a mental health dysfunction. Some call it behavioral; some call it personality disorder; some use stronger psychiatric terms that are not often welcome to the receiver (listener), the mildest of which is depression (in my mind not so scary as some other pshychiatric terms when applied to oneself.) Again, back to how common I think it is. I mentioned seeing in my friends as a child and as an adult. I have also seen it in my profession (former profession - I am a retired Registered Nurse). The article in which the nurse wrote, she said, "I've seen it before and it's always terrifying." Yes, I saw it as a nurse, documented in charts of patients/clients in the form of color photographs/Poloroids and written verbal descriptions by Emergency Response workers, Social workers, Police and others who added their evidence to the history. These documentations were terrifying in that "if they only knew" kind of way. |
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Post by eagle on Oct 19, 2008 12:04:59 GMT -5
Incidentally, if anyone is interested in taking the Living Conditions Rating Scale (LCRS) as mentioned in some of the articles sited above (and other I did not list), here is a link to it. You will have to register to gain access to the LCRS, but it is free. And it will calculate for you. You need to delete the X's that are in the wrong boxes before you hit the 'Calculate' button at the bottom. |
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