More than just a pack rat
So let's say your spouse is a hoarder. Like, collect anything and everything, never throw anything away, piles upon piles of everything up to the ceiling, every room in the house, some rooms so full you can't even enter the room. Floor isn't visible anywhere. Stairs are dangerous because of the chaos. Most windows are covered, only one exit door is accessible at all, and even that one is partially blocked. There are some bug and rodent problems as a result of this. The kitchen is inaccessible so food cannot be prepared in the home, and very little refrigerated food can even be stored.
Your spouse has sought mental health treatment previously, but it's been unsuccessful and nothing more than a few boxes ever made it out of the house. You are warned by CPS that your two young children may be taken because the house is a danger to them. Your spouse still does not make any effort to resolve the issue. When you threaten to empty everything yourself, your spouse goes ballistic and threatens to kill him/herself if you do it.
CPS knocks on the door several weeks later and takes your children. They will not be returned unless you can prove you can provide a safe, clean, stable home for them.
What do you do? Do you throw everything out? Put your spouse in therapy and wait for him/her to work it out and fix things? Do you divorce your spouse and set up a separate household so you can get the kids back? Or something else? Where does your allegiance lie? Your mentally ill spouse, or your children?
(inspired by the sneak peek of the new A&E show Hoarders. I'm a sucker for these shows.)
http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/video/
ETA: I added some details to a particular "teaser" they showed. What they DID show was the couple together, in the house full of shit, and the dad(not the hoarder) talking about how CPS took the kids, and how they're working to get the house ok enough that the kids can come back.
I definitely want to see the episode to see if the dad took any steps to try and keep the kids. From the teaser, it doesn't look like he did.
It was also, it seemed, a rather nice house in and of itself. It was just completely trashed with all this stuff. So it looks like they might be ok financially, but maybe not ok enough to pay for really significant intervention as to treating the mom.
Your spouse has sought mental health treatment previously, but it's been unsuccessful and nothing more than a few boxes ever made it out of the house. You are warned by CPS that your two young children may be taken because the house is a danger to them. Your spouse still does not make any effort to resolve the issue. When you threaten to empty everything yourself, your spouse goes ballistic and threatens to kill him/herself if you do it.
CPS knocks on the door several weeks later and takes your children. They will not be returned unless you can prove you can provide a safe, clean, stable home for them.
What do you do? Do you throw everything out? Put your spouse in therapy and wait for him/her to work it out and fix things? Do you divorce your spouse and set up a separate household so you can get the kids back? Or something else? Where does your allegiance lie? Your mentally ill spouse, or your children?
(inspired by the sneak peek of the new A&E show Hoarders. I'm a sucker for these shows.)
http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/video/
ETA: I added some details to a particular "teaser" they showed. What they DID show was the couple together, in the house full of shit, and the dad(not the hoarder) talking about how CPS took the kids, and how they're working to get the house ok enough that the kids can come back.
I definitely want to see the episode to see if the dad took any steps to try and keep the kids. From the teaser, it doesn't look like he did.
It was also, it seemed, a rather nice house in and of itself. It was just completely trashed with all this stuff. So it looks like they might be ok financially, but maybe not ok enough to pay for really significant intervention as to treating the mom.