Through the trials and tribulations of educating ourselves and empowering Daniel to deal with his hoarding issues, there were some light moments in our otherwise serious quest for answers. The following are some examples of the humorous side of our life with an obsessive/compulsive hoarder.
STOCKPILING
We live on the coast of Texas and are susceptible to hurricanes. During the season, we keep an extra amount of canned goods, batteries, and bottled water on hand. Daniel has his own hurricane emergency kit. It includes seven packets of taco sauce from Jack in the Box, a stale package of croutons from Mcdonald’s, one small bag of cheetos puffs, a bag of salted peanuts, and an MRE (meals ready to eat) leftover from hurricane Rita over a year ago that Grampy gave him. He keeps these food items in a plastic container on a shelf in the kitchen. He identified the contents by writing across the lid, EMERGANSEE FOR DANIEL ONLY (in case of hericane). The emergency kit is still in place.
REFRIGERATED MYSTERIES
When dining out, Daniel always required a to go container. He insisted on over ordering so he would have extra food to bring home and squirrel away. When he was responsive enough for me to begin asking about his stashed food in the fridge, a to go container was usually on the list. Once when we were examining the contents, I couldn’t figure out what the food had been in it’s original form. There was a long mass of green with fuzzy growth covering it, in the little side dish compartment, there was a rounded bumpy mass, also green and fuzzy. I showed it to Daniel, assuming he couldn’t identify the contents and it would be easily disposed of. Resolutely, he looked up into my eyes stating the long stuff was an enchilada and the bumpy stuff was refried beans, they tasted good and he would like to keep it.
THE LITTLE APARTMENT
We refer to Daniel’s bunkbed as his little apartment. When I first began working on getting things out of the bed and in their proper storage space, he plotted every possible way to get around it. I would ask Daniel to please put his shoes in the proper place. They went from under the covers to under the pillow. After asking him again to put them in their designated place, they went from under the pillow to under the mattress. By morning, they were usually right back under the covers.
JUST LIKE MY BIG BROTHER
While discussing Randy’s medication regimen after school one day, Daniel asked if he had any disorders like his brother. I used the opportunity to bring his hoarding to the table and give it a valid name. I was concerned he would be upset or confused with having a feasible issue. We talked about it for awhile and he commented that he was glad somebody found a “problem” for him to talk about. He was gettin’ tired of talkin’ about Randy’s.